4 held, narco-arms module busted; 1.5kg heroin, bullets made at Pak Ordnance Factory seized

Amritsar: Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a cross-border narco-arms smuggling module with the arrest of four operatives, seizure of 1.5kg heroin and Rs 1.98 lakh of alleged drug money. However, what stood out in the seizures was the recovery of 34 cartridges manufactured by Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF).Amritsar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said all arrested men belong to Ranian village in Amritsar, and had been identified as Jaskinder Singh alias Sikander, Harpal Singh, Gurmukh Singh and Sukhdeep Singh. Police said they seized a 9mm pistol and a .30-bore pistol along with the 34 POF-made cartridges.The preliminary investigation has revealed the arrested accused persons, in connivance with foreign-based handlers, were in contact with Pakistan-based smugglers through social media. Acting on their directions, the arrested persons were retrieving consignments of illegal arms and heroin being transported via drones from across the border, and supplying them further to locations in Punjab, he said.Bhullar informed that acting on specific and reliable secret information, police teams from Amritsar carried out an operation and arrested four accused. On the disclosure statements of arrested accused Gurmukh Singh and Sukhdeep Singh, police teams seized two pistols, while 1.5kg heroin was seized on the disclosure of accused Jaskinder Singh and Harpal Singh, Bhullar added.The investigation also revealed that all accused were closely related to each other and belonged to the same extended family. Whereas Harpal Singh and Gurmukh Singh are brothers, Jaskinder Singh alias Sikander and Sukhdeep Singh are their nephews, he said, adding that it was also found that all four accused fell within the age group of 19 to 33 years and have no previous criminal antecedents.