Police Bust International Drug Racket, Canadian Among 4 Held

CHANDIGARH, 18 JUNE 2018: The Punjab Police on Sunday claimed to have busted an international module of drug smugglers reportedly controlled from Canada. They have arrested four people, who were using the courier service route to smuggle opium and potent date rape drug Ketamine. The drugs were concealed in cooking bowls used in community kitchens. Besides discovering the modus operandi, the police seized 4.75 kg of date rape drug and 6 kg of opium.

AIG Counter Intelligence H K P S Khakh, who had been chasing Davinder Dev, for quite some time, said the racket was planned by Canadian citizens Kamaljit Singh Chauhan and Davinder Nirwal alias Dev. While Chauhan hails from Nagar village, Phillaur of district Jalandhar, Dev belongs to Ganganagar, Rajasthan, and was at present residing at 53, Gurbax Singh Nagar, Khanna.

Dev, who the police claim was a ‘big name’ in drug smuggling, had been under close watch of the enforcement directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), said Khakh, who strategized the joint operation undertaken by the Counter Intelligence Wing and district police, Jalandhar Rural.

Apart from Dev (68), the other accused have been identified as Ajit Singh Jeet (45) and Tarlochan Singh (42) of Jalandhar, and Gurbax Singh (50) of Hoshiarpur.

Giving details of the arrests, Khakh said the joint teams, acting on a tip-off, carried out a special operation on the Haripur T-Point near Jandu Singha and arrested four people traveling in two cars. They were carrying big cooking bowls with the drugs hidden in seven tailor-made big cauldrons to be transferred to Canada through a courier company. The use of private couriers or postal services is a new modus operandi used by global drug smugglers to avoid police and other agencies.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the consignment was prepared by Kamaljit Chauhan, who visited India last winter and fixed a deal with the accused for smuggling of Ketamine and opium to Canada. On Kamaljit’s direction, Ajit purchased 14 big cooking bowls from Malerkotla, and, after hiding the drugs in between two layers, got the upper brims soldiered to make them appear as one bowl. Seven such bowls were prepared by him, as he was specially trained in welding. He had bought opium from Madhya Pradesh and Ketamine from Rampur (UP). The Times Of India