The Punjab Police on Thursday cracked down on another multi-crore international synthetic drug racket with the arrest of three Delhi-based persons —following close on the heels of neutralising of Jagdish Bhola-controlled drug network last month.
Patiala zone Inspector General of Police Paramjit Singh Gill said: “This important and major break-through in drive against drug trafficking follows systematic and meticulous investigations by the Punjab Police with the objective of exposure of drug networks in a complete and end-to-end manner from source of supply to the distribution network.”
He said that the Punjab Police had started two-tier interrogation of drug smugglers from October 14 onwards, with smugglers being questioned firstly by the district police, followed by sustained interrogation by officials of state special operations cell (SSOC) in the joint interrogation center at Amritsar.
“So far, over 100 smugglers have been interrogated. These interrogations have yielded valuable information about various cogs in different drug networks so as to enable Punjab Police to smash these drug networks in an end-to-end manner, from source of supply to distribution network,” he said.
Gill added that the focus was not limited to the
state of Punjab, but networks operating in other parts of the country were also being detected and action being taken.
The IGP revealed that the kingpin of the Delhi-based module was Dev Behl, an influential Delhi-based businessman with varied interests. Besides, New Delhi-resident Rakesh Tinku and Una resident Mohinder, behl’s driver, have also been arrested.
The preliminary questioning of arrested persons has revealed a major international drug racket based in New Delhi which was obtaining raw materials—precursor chemicals ephedrine and pseudoephedrine—and converting them into synthetic drugs like Ice (M-amphetamine), and supplying them to international markets including Canada since past three years by adopting innovative camouflaging techniques.
Investigations carried out so far have disclosed that at least three consignments of synthetic drugs were funneled to Canada by this drug network and one of the recipients of the contrabands has been identified as Iqbal Singh alias Pala of Canada.
“The accused have been booked under appropriate sections of law in Patiala district….Based on inputs, police parties have been dispatched to various places in Delhi and other states to conduct further raids, make arrests and seize synthetic drugs or precursor chemicals on the disclosure of the accused. Further investigations are going on and necessary liaison is being done with the Delhi police in this regard,” added Gill.
Dev Behl: Owner of a pharmaceutical company; has big house in Delhi spread over one acre, deployed private security for protection; has 20-room hotel—Royal Farm, a marriage palace in HP, eight-acre marriage palace, also named Royal Farm, on Karnal road near Delhi.
Mohinder: the driver of Dev Behl
Rakesh Tinku: a garment export licence in Delhi