The gang was busted by a Barnala Police workforce, officers stated (Representational)
Chandigarh:
In a significant crackdown on trafficking of pharmaceutical opioids throughout the nation, the Punjab Police on Friday stated it has busted a drug cartel, working throughout 11 states, and arrested 20 individuals.
The Punjab Police additionally termed the motion as “one of many greatest crackdowns on provide of pharmaceutical opioids throughout the nation”.
20 individuals have been arrested with an enormous cache of medication and drug proceeds – cash and 5 autos – in an operation that spanned over eight weeks, Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta stated.
Giving particulars of the case and the investigations, he stated the drug cartel, often known as the “Agra gang”, was pushing pharmaceutical opioids (medicine) into the markets all throughout India by diverting medicine in big portions from the producers, suppliers, wholesalers and retail chemists.
Of the 20 individuals arrested up to now, 16 are from Punjab, two are from UP and one every is from Haryana and Delhi, the Director Basic of Police stated in an announcement.
“With the arrest of those gang members, a well-oiled community of drug syndicate pushing consignments to the tune of 10-12 crores of intoxicating pharmaceutical opioids within the type of tablets / capsules / injections / syrups per 30 days into Punjab and different components of the nation has been completely smashed and hundreds of youth who had been or might have gotten addicted to those medicine have been saved from drug abuse and habit,” he stated.
The gang was busted by a Barnala Police workforce, comprising Pragya Jain, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, and different officers working below the supervision of senior police officer Sandeep Goel.
The arrests of the 20 males, together with one of many cartel’s kingpins, had been constituted of numerous areas in Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
As many as 27,62,137 tablets, capsules, injections and syrup bottles had been seized from them, together with drug proceeds cash of Rs 70,03,800, Dinkar Gupta stated.
The DGP stated the case started to unravel in Could with the arrest of Balwinder Singh alias Nikka and 4 others, together with 2,85,000 tablets throughout an investigation into an FIR registered below the Narcotic Medication and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Mehal Kalan police station.
This additional led to the arrest of 1 Julfikar Ali with 12,000 intoxicating tablets, the DGP stated, including his questioning revealed the function of Harish as one of many masterminds within the inflow and provide of pharmaceutical opioids into Punjab.
“Following these arrests, the Barnala Police spent over two months creating the out there leads, laying out elaborate surveillance plans and a lure was then laid out, with a particular workforce being despatched to West Bengal from the place Harish was arrested. It was Harish who disclosed the modus operandi of the gang and its chain of provide of psychotropic medicine not simply in Punjab however in over 11 states of the nation,” he stated.
The DGP stated investigations into the gang’s modus operandi up to now have revealed that Harish posed as a medical consultant to determine contact with chemists and pharmacists by utilizing data akin to tackle and telephone quantity, which he simply discovered over the web and social media.
The contraband smugglers used a pre-identified community of couriers, working from main cities together with Delhi, Agra, Amritsar, Jaipur, Gwalior and Bhopal, and delivered consignments to varied areas in a number of states with the assistance of undervalued payments utilizing native transporters.
“Fee and switch of cash was carried out utilizing the hawala channels, and in addition via a number of money transactions into financial institution accounts particularly created for this objective,” he stated.
“The gang was diverting these intoxicants, that are medically used for ache aid and therapy for opioid dependence, for extra-medical use, which might result in main drug overdose points and even deaths,” he stated.
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