Nurpur district police bust Dubai-based international drug racket, six arrested

The Nurpur district police have busted a Dubai-based drug racket with the arrest of six persons and seizure of Rs 1.2 crore cash, 1.93-kg gold and 99.45-gm silver jewellery. They have freezed five bank accounts with Rs 52.52 lakh that were opened by the main accused in the names of his relatives. As per the Nurpur district police, the main kingpins of this drug racket are Lakhvinder Singh and his son Vishal, alias Shallu, of Bhadroya that falls under the Damtal police’s jurisdiction.

Vishal had been arrested by the Nurpur police on February 1, 2023, with over 1 kg heroin and Rs 1.04 crore earned from drug trade. During trial, he was given bail by the state high court.

Once out, he went absconding and allegedly flew to Dubai from where he has been allegedly coordinating with his father Lakhvinder Singh, who has established an international drug supply network.

Initially, the Damtal police on October 27 last year had arrested Kanwal Jeet of Chheharta in Amritsar district with a commercial quantity of 262 gm heroin. He was suspected to be the main drug supplier in this interstate border area and the police conducted a thorough investigation of this case registered under Section 21 of the NDPS Act. The interrogation of the accused had unearthed this international drug racket which led to the arrest of six members of this gang. After arresting Raj Kumar, alias Sethi, of Bhadroya on April 13 (against whom six cases of NDPS Act and Indian Arms Act had already been registered), the police arrested five members of this drug racket in a row within one week.

Nurpur SP Ashok Ratan told The Tribune that the main kingpin, Dubai-based Vishal, used to smuggle heroin through an established network either through drone dropping at Amritsar or other means of transport. “Rajesh Kumar of Arjun Nagar, Chheharta (Amritsar), another accused arrested on April 8, used to collect contraband from Amritsar and deliver it to another arrested accused, Kamaljeet of Arjun Nagar, Chheharta, who worked as a courier in this drug network. Kamaljeet delivered the synthetic drugs at different locations in Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Nurpur districts as directed by Vishal. The gang worked by exchanging information through a WhatsApp group named ‘Sahallu-Balli’,” he said.

The SP said preliminary investigation revealed that arrested accused Lakhvinder was accumulating money from this illegal trade and kept a huge amount of cash and precious jewellery with another arrested accused (goldsmith) Gagan Sarna of Saingarh in Pathankot. “The police conducted a raid at his house on April 16 and recovered Rs 1.15 crore cash and 1.25-kg gold jewellery from him. Apart from this, the police have arrested Mohit Singh, alias Tony, a 15-year-old aide of Gagan of Sunder Nagar at Pathankot and recovered Rs 4.90 lakh cash and 67.93-gm gold and 95.45-gm silver jewellery,” he said.

Himachal Tribune