Busting an international module of drug smugglers reportedly controlled from Canada, the Punjab Police have arrested four persons, who were using the courier services route to smuggle drugs abroad.
The arrests have exposed an international drugs syndicate, which was found to be controlling the module that was involved in smuggling opium and the potent date rape drug, Ketamine.
The arrested persons have been identified as Canadian national Davinder Nirwal alias Dev (68), Ajit Singh alias Jeet (45), Tarlochan Singh (42) of village Jaitewali in Jalandhar and Gurbax Singh (50) of village Katthe in Hoshiarpur.
Additional Inspector General Counter Intelligence HKPS Khakh, who had been chasing the Canadian Davinder Dev, said that the racket was found to be masterminded by Canadian citizens — Kamaljit Singh Chauhan, who hails from Nagar village in Jalandhar, and Dev, who is a resident of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, and currently residing at Khanna in ludhiana.
Dev, a big name in the drug smuggling world, had been under close watch of the Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), said Khakh, who strategized the joint operation undertaken by the Counter Intelligence Wing and District Police Jalandhar Rural.
The police have seized 4.75 kilograms of Ketamine and six kilograms of opium, neatly packed in double layered seven big cooking bowls (cauldron), used for preparations of langar (community kitchen) material.
Giving details of the arrests, Khakh said that the joint teams, acting on a tip-off, carried out a special operation on Haripur T-Point near Jandu Singha in Jalandhar and arrested the four persons travelling in two different cars.
He added that accused were carrying seven big cooking bowls, with the drugs hidden in specially made seven big cauldrons for Canada, through a courier company.
The use of private couriers or postal services is a new modus operandi used by global drug smugglers to avoid police and other agencies, he added.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the consignment was prepared by Kamaljit Chohan, who visited India in 2017 and fixed a deal with the accused for smuggling of Ketamine and opium to Canada.
As per the agreement, Dev and Jeet were to arrange drugs from their Indian sources and pack them properly while Chohan had taken the responsibility to further take the drugs to Canada through courier route which was known only to him.
Police informed that initially, on a trial basis, they sent two consignments of Opium, weighing six kg and 14 Kg respectively, packed nicely in ‘Sweet Boxes’, to Kamaljit, who took this delivery near Jalandhar bus stand through his men, for whom a hunt is now on. After successfully taking two deliveries, Kamaljit asked Dev and Jeet to now deliver the costly Ketamine drug, along with Opium.
On Kamaljit’s direction, Ajit Singh Jeet purchased 14 big cooking bowls from Malerkotla, and after hiding the drugs in between two layers, he got the upper brims of two bowls soldiered to make them appear as one bowl. Seven such bowls were prepared by Jeet, who was specially trained in welding and had bought Opium from Madhya Pradesh and Ketamine from Rampur (Uttar Pradesh).
Ajit Singh also involved his brother Tarlochan Singh, a truck driver, and his cousin Gurbax Singh, whose fake ID was made to facilitate the delivery.
The consignment was first taken to “Shri Dev Courier” of Sheikha Bazaar of Jalandhar but Kamaljit later instructed them to take it back from the courier company and send it through another company. Fake IDs were shared with the courier company to cover their tracks.
A total of five persons, including the main Canadian organisers, have been booked under the provisions of the NDPS Act, along with 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), registered in Police Station Patara of Jalandhar rural.
Police spokesperson said that the drug syndicate had a well-established chain of supply within India and abroad, and the police were on the trail of others involved in the racket, as well as the courier route used by them. All payments were being made through hawala channels, which are also under investigation.