Punjab Government’s claims of ending drug menace in the State apart, the problem continues to grow unabated. If recovery of contraband is an indicator, its presence in the State has, in no way, decreased despite media hype
Figure this: The State has witnessed a record recovery of heroine this year with a month to go. Till November, the State has seized 643 kgs of heroin having worth of Rs 3,215 crore in the international market. This figure has already crossed the previous year’s recovery of 567 kgs. The huge recovery of heroin was made by the Punjab Police and the Border Security Force (BSF) from the State. “Out of the total recovery of 643 kgs of heroin, BSF has seized 295 kgs, while the rest 348 kgs were recovered by the Punjab police,” a senior Punjab police official told The Pioneer, requesting anonymity.
The official said that this year’s figure is an all-time high. ReasonIJ “The production of heroin in Afghanistan is high this year, and that is why the cross-border trading has witnessed an increase. As Punjab has strengthened its border vigil and intensified its efforts against drug smugglers, the seizure has been high,” the official said.
Besides heroin, the forces have also recovered fake and original currency, arms and ammunition, mobile phones, and other drugs including poppy husk, intoxicating powder, injections among other things. “Concerted action has also been taken against import and sale of poppy husk in the State, with Punjab Police parties raiding places of source of poppy husk, in other States like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand,” he added.
Even as the State police authorities have already stepped up watch on drug traffickers, the BSF has also beefed up the border security owing to winter season ahead. “The traffickers take advantage of foggy weather to cross border,” added the official. As the officials could not provide the latest comprehensive data regarding recovery of other drugs, the available figures till October this year stated that the state police succeeded in seizing 1,71,822 kgs poppy husk, 1,332.351 kgs of intoxicating powder, and 61,872 injections.
It was informed that nearly 9,000 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act have been registered and around 10,000 persons have been arrested. The recent arrests made in the multi-crore drug racket in the state, including former DSP Jagdish Singh Bhola, and the revelations made during interrogation, the alleged involvement of politicians, police officials, NRIs, Kabaddi players’ in the drug trade has came into light.
It was revealed during investigations that sports clubs, particularly Kabaddi, based in Canada and Europe, were used for distribution of contraband consignments. Besides Punjab, various organisations in different countries — Canada, England, America, besides several countries from Europe — also conduct Kabaddi tournaments. It has been learnt that these tournaments were being used by such traffickers for drug trade.
The police is expecting to make more leads in the case in the near future. The police official said that their main focus in 2012 was to identify and nab the organised smugglers who were importing heroin from across the border and breaking the supply lines. “In 2013, after understanding the smuggling network, a two-fold strategy was adopted in the form of taking effective steps in coordination with the BSF to stop entry of heroin into the State,” he said adding that wherever the smugglers managed to succeed in bringing narcotics to Punjab, the same be tracked and seized before it was transported out of the State or distributed locally.