The Punjab Police has busted a major drug cartel being operated from inside a jail. (Representational)
The Punjab Police has busted a major drug cartel being operated from inside a jail with the arrest of seven alleged drug smugglers and recovery of 15 kilograms of heroin from them, an official said on Saturday.
The mastermind Jaspreet Singh alias Kali of Moga, who is currently lodged in the Faridkot Jail, was in touch with Pakistan-based drug smugglers and ran the cartel from the prison, Punjab Police DGP Gaurav Yadav said.
The arrested persons have been identified as Gurpinder Singh alias Bhinda, Narinder Singh and Ranjodh Singh alias Jodha -- the residents of Haruwal village in Gurdaspur -- and Rajdeep Singh, Ram Singh, Jaspal Singh and Rajwinder Kaur, the residents of Ferozepur, police said.
The state police chief said the counter-intelligence team in Amritsar had received reliable input that Gurpinder, Narinder and Ranjodh had recently retrieved a heroin consignment from the Haruwal village that was sent by Pakistan-based smugglers using drones.
The consignment was expected to be delivered to someone in Amritsar, the DGP added.
Acting on the information, the operation team of the counter-intelligence arrested the trio from Gurdaspur's Haruwal area and seized 15 kg heroin from their possession, said Mr Yadav.
A total of Rs 7 lakh cash and two cars were also recovered from them, he added.
The consignment was delivered from across the Indo-Pak border in six sorties, each carrying a packet of 2.5 kg heroin, he added.
"The investigations have revealed that the mastermind Jaspreet Singh alias Kali of Moga, who is currently lodged in the Faridkot Jail, was in touch with Pakistan-based drug smugglers via WhatsApp and managing this drug cartel from the jail," said the DGP, adding the police will soon bring him on production warrant for further investigation.
Police said Gurpinder, one of the accused, revealed during interrogation that Jaspreet was expected to send someone to collect the heroin consignment from a parking lot near the Town Hall in Amritsar.
Acting on this information, the police arrested the remaining four accused who came to pick up the consignment, they added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)