With the Punjab Police tightening its grip on drug smuggling, peddlers and suppliers are now adopting new ways to evade arrests by selling drugs in very little quantities — in milligrams and grams — to avoid detection. Adding to this, onion-laden trucks are used to ferry contrabands because the “pungent smell of onions can dilute the smell of drugs.”
Explaining the trend, Punjab IG, (HQ), Sukhchain Singh Gill, at a press briefing stated: “It has also been observed that supply from Abohar and Ferozepur sides are increasing and drug suppliers are now preferring public transport to smuggle drugs. Intoxicant tablets are majorly being supplied to Uttar Pradesh-Delhi side from areas of Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Bahadurgarh via Haryana, while opium and poppy husk are mostly coming from the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan belt.”
The IGP also informed that bigger packets are being concealed in onion-laden consignments. Added, the war against anti-socials has been upped since chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government assumed office in Punjab.
“Punjab Police teams have successfully busted 67 criminal modules and arrested 301 gangsters besides neutralizing two dreaded gangsters in the encounter and recovered 640 weapons along with 174 magazines and 3364 cartridges from their possession. Apart from this, police teams have also recovered seven hand-grenades and five IEDs,” he added.
Meanwhile, the DGP has strictly ordered all the Commissioners of Police (CPs) and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSPs) to further intensify raids on drug smugglers. He has also directed top cops in each district to identify peddlers and hotspots infamous for drugs. IPS Gill also ordered police chiefs to effectively forfeit all property of arrested smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.
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