‘Drone-dropped’ heroin seized in Fazilka, two held

Fazilka: The Fazilka unit of the state special operations cell (SSOC) arrested two men and seized around 2 kg of heroin in a cross-border smuggling case involving drone drops from Pakistan.The operation was carried out by the Counter Intelligence wing of Ferozepur. Rajwant Singh, officer-in-charge, Counter Intelligence, Jalalabad, said police received specific inputs that a heroin consignment was being sent from Pakistan to the BOP SS Wala sector in Jalalabad and that smugglers would arrive to retrieve it. Acting on the tip-off, police laid a trap and apprehended two suspects.Preliminary probe revealed that the contraband was sent via drone in two sorties. In the first, a drone dropped one kg of heroin and returned. During the second sortie, the drone reportedly developed a technical fault and crashed in fields. Pakistani handlers then shared the GPS coordinates with their Indian associates and asked them to locate the drone and consignment.As the accused searched the fields, police teams surrounded and arrested them. They were identified as Jagdish Singh of Ferozepur district and Gursewak Singh alias Sevak of Singhwa Bet in Ludhiana district.Police are probing the smuggling network involved, who ordered the consignment and the intended delivery chain. Both accused were produced before a local court and remanded to one day of police custody. They are currently being interrogated.