Amritsar police bust cross-border heroin cartel, 8.1 kg seized

May 10, 2024 2:37 pm

Published by: PreetiMahajan

The Fact News Service

Chandigarh/Amritsar, September 8

In a major blow to cross-border narco-terror networks amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Commissionerate Police Amritsar has busted a heroin trafficking cartel with the arrest of the notorious drug smuggler identified as Soni Singh alias Soni along with his four associates and recovered 8.1kg heroin from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Monday.

The other four arrested drug smugglers have been identified as Gursewak Singh, Vishaldeep Singh alias Gola, Gurpreet Singh and Arshdeep Singh, all residents of Ajnala in Amritsar.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the syndicate was operating from Pakistan and drones were being used to deliver large consignments of heroin into Indian territory. Preliminary investigation revealed that the syndicate used hotels as contraband dumps to circulate consignments further into the network, he said.

The DGP said that further investigations are ongoing to establish forward and backward linkages in this case to identify handlers, supply chains, and financial networks.

Sharing operation details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that following reliable inputs, Police teams had arrested drug smuggler Soni Singh from outskirts of city along with 150 grams of heroin and drug money. Preliminary investigation revealed that arrested accused Soni, who has six cases of NDPS Act registered against him and came out of jail in June, had delivered consignments of nearly 30 kg heroin that had come via drones, supplying them further across the chain, he said.

The CP said that on Soni’s disclosure, his associate Gursewak Singh was nominated and arrested with 8.037 kg heroin. The latter was handling the consignments to be delivered in the city, he said, while adding that further investigation led to the nomination and arrest of Soni’s remaining active members of this smuggling module.

He said that further investigations are ongoing. More arrests and recoveries are likely in coming days, he added.

A case FIR No. 177 dated 06-09-2025 has been registered under sections 21-B, 27-A, 21-C and 29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Chheharta in Amritsar.