In the backdrop of the terror attack at Pathankot Air Force base, Punjab Police on Monday claimed to have busted a drug smuggling syndicate and arrested three persons from near here, and recovered Pakistani SIM cards, mobiles, weapons and ammunition from their possession.
The seizures were made from the three criminals, all involved in an interstate drug smuggling gang, Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police GPS Bhullar told media persons here.
“The three notorious smugglers had with them foreign made weapons including a Pakistani double-magazine automatic stengun and Pakistani mobile sim card,” he said.
They have been identified as Gurjant Singh alias Bholu (26) and Sandip Singh (25), both residents of village Havelian, about 15 km from Chandigarh, and Jatinder Singh alias Jindi (34), he said.
The three were arrested following a scuffle between them and a police team in which the gangsters had also opened fire at the cops, he said.
The SSP said that police have recovered one stengun of .9 mm, two pistols (.9mm), two pistols .30 bore, one airgun, 190 live cartridges, 31 mobile phones, one Pakistani mobile sim card and one car from them.
“The miscreants are close acquaintances of Jaipal, who is wanted in a number of robbery, dacoity and smuggling cases”, said Bhullar.
He said that apart from smuggling heroin from across the border, the gangsters were also conspiring to kidnap children of rich people for ransom.