Punjab Police arrested 5,856 big fish among 39,840 drug smugglers in two and half years; 2,546 kg heroin recovered

 Punjab Police arrested 5,856 big fish among 39,840 drug smugglers in two and half years; 2,546 kg heroin recovered

Chandigarh/Daljeet Ajnoha/Sept.16

With the decisive war against drugs waged on the directions of Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Singh Mann to root out the men- ace of drugs from state has completed two and half years, Punjab Police have arrested as many as 39840 drug smugglers including 5,856 big fish since March 16, 2022. The Police have registered a total of 29,152 first information reports (FIRs) of which 3,581 are related to commercial quantity.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquar- ters Sukhchain Singh Gill, who was addressing a Press Conference here on Monday, said that the Police teams have recov- ered 2546-Kg Heroin from across the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug- affected areas besides lay-

ing nakas at vulnerable routes across the state.

Apart from seizing big-

haul of heroin, the Police

teams have also recovered

2457-Kg opium, 1156

quintals of poppy husk,

and 4.29 crore tablets/

capsules/injections/vials

of Pharma opioids from

across the state, he said,

while adding that the Po-

lice have also recovered

Rs 30.83 crore of drug

money from the posses-

sion of drug smugglers

arrested in the last two

and a half year.

The IGP said that Pun- jab Police have also for- feited properties of 602

big smugglers worth Rs 324.28 crore in these two and a half years, while, as many as 192 cases to freeze properties worth Rs 103.50 crore are pending with the competent authority for ap- proval. Pertinently, the state

government has enforced a three-pronged strategy- Enforcement, Prevention and Rehabilitation- to eradicate drugs from the state. As part of the strat- egy, the Punjab Police has been promoting and creating awareness about section 64-A of the NDPS act, which provides an op- portunity to a drug con- sumer-caught with a few grams of heroin or narcotic powder-for rehabilitation.

"As many as 295 drug consumers, caught with little quantity of drugs, in 245 cases availed pro- vision of section 64-A of the NDPS by pledging to undergo the rehabilitation treatment," said the IGP.