With another seizure of 325 kilos of precursor chemicals on Saturday from a Baddi-factory owned by Jagjit Singh Chahal, the total recoveries of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in the massive multi-crore synthetic drug racket is nearing one metric tonne, worth Rs 925 crore.
The primary focus of investigations in synthetic drug racket has been to identify sources of supply of raw material — ephedrine and pseudoephedrine — used for manufacture of synthetic drugs, said Patiala SSP Hardyal Singh Mann.
He said that besides that, main aim was to effect their seizures and recoveries, to make arrests of all persons involved in the supply chain, to identify distribution network, arrest persons involved in the distribution network so as to completely unveil and expose the racket in an end-to-end manner from suppliers of raw materials to manufactures of synthetic drugs to its distributors and smash it. “The total recoveries affected so far are worth over Rs 925 crore in the international market, and it is expected that more recoveries would be done as the investigation progresses,” he added.
Mann revealed that further investigations into case by the Punjab Police has uncovered an illegal weapons supply racket in which small weapons smuggled from across international border were sold to unsuspecting buyers as legitimate Indian weapons through connivance of certain arms dealers and some officials of arms licencing branches. Four small weapons including three 0.30 bore pistols and one 0.32 bore pistol have been recovered so far. One Bolero car has also been recovered. Baljinder Singh, an associate of drug lord and synthetic drug racket mastermind Jagdish Bhola, who was arrested along with him on November 11 was the kingpin of this illicit weapon supply racket.
Baljinder Singh headed a group of smugglers who were in touch with Pak-based arms and drugs smugglers and was instrumental in obtaining several consignments of contraband and arms from across the international border. According to investigations carried on so far, Baljinder-led smuggling ring was responsible for smuggling 14 small weapons and 40 kilos of heroin from across the international border, he added.