Punjab Police bust international drug and arms smuggling cartel; Two held with 19kg heroin, 17 pistols & 23 lakh drug money 

Amidst the ongoing campaign to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per the vision of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police on Sunday busted a cross-border drug and arms smuggling racket being operated by USA-based smuggler Manpreet alias Mannu Mahawa with the arrest of its two key persons from Amritsar.

Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav has identified the arrested persons as Sandeep Singh alias Laddi, a resident of Guru Ki Wadali in Amritsar and Roshan, a resident of Heir in Amritsar.

He said that Police teams have also recovered 19kg heroin, Rs 23 lakh drug money, 7 pistols— including one sophisticated 9mm Glock, three .30 bore pistols and three .32 bore pistols— along with Pak stamped ammunition, currency counting machine and drone equipment including a remote controller and spare fans from their possession, besides, impounding their Hyundai Verna car (PB06BB4064), in which they were going to supply the heroin consignment.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused persons were directly in touch with USA-based smuggler Mannu Mahawa and were supplying heroin across the state after smuggling from Pakistan. Apart from the investigating backward and forward linkages, Amritsar Commisionerate Police teams are also working on the financial investigation on the Hawala links and property details for getting them freezed, he added.

Sharing details of the operation, Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that Police teams have received reliable inputs that associates of smugglers Mannu Mahawa have retrieved the heroin consignment sent by Pak-based smugglers from across the border and were on the way to deliver it to someone.

“Acting promptly, Police teams from CIA Staff-3 under the supervision of DCP Harpreet Mandher, ADCP City-3 Abhimanyu Rana and ACP Central Surinder Kumar conducted a special police checking in the area of Islamabad and arrested both the accused persons when they were waiting for someone to deliver the consignment,” he said.

CP Bhullar said that further efforts are being made to ascertain the total quantity of narcotics and weapons procured by the arrested accused so far.

A case FIR no. 298 dated 31.12.2023 has been registered under sections 21 and 29 of the NDPS Act and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station Islamabad in Amritsar.