IEP Chandigarh, January 30
Amid the ongoing decisive war against drugs launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police have arrested 257 drug smugglers/suppliers after registering 198 first information reports (FIRs), including 19 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act across the state in the last week.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly Press Conference here on Monday, said that the Police have also recovered 16.36-Kg Heroin, 6.70-Kg opium, 1.94 quintal of poppy husk, and 78918 tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids besides recovering Rs 11.53 Lakh drug money from their possession.
Prior to this week, Punjab Police had arrested 241 drug smugglers after recovering 5-Kg Heroin, 4.90-Kg opium, 5.92 quintals of poppy husk, and 1.95 Lakh tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids and Rs 7.89 Lakh drug money from their possession.
He said that with 12 more Proclaimed Offenders (POs)/Absconders in NDPS cases arrested in the last week, the total number of arrests reached 648 since the special drive to arrest POs/absconders was started on July 5, 2022.
Pertinently, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab Gaurav Yadav had given strict instructions to all the CPs/SSPs to investigate backward and forward linkages minutely in each and every case, especially related to drug recoveries, even if they recover a meager amount of drugs.
Meanwhile, on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab a drug-free state, extensive anti-drug drives have been launched by the Punjab Police to combat the menace of drugs from the border State. The DGP has also strictly ordered all the CPs/SSPs to identify all hotspots where drugs are prevalent and all top drug smugglers in their jurisdictions. He also directed the Police chiefs to effectively forfeit the property of all the arrested drug smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.
