BSF recovers 3kg heroin hidden in 3 tractor drawbars

AMRITSAR : Pakistani drug smugglers have now started using tractor drawbars to smuggle heroin to India allegedly in connivance with some farmers. The fact came to the fore after the Border Security Force (BSF) recovered over 3kg heroin, concealed in three tractor draw bars, in a field near the barbed fence on the India-pakistan border here on Sunday.

The recovered heroin is worth more than ₹15 crore in the international market, said a BSF official.

A drawbar is mounted or located on the tractive vehicle and is used to accept the coupling of the load.

RS Kataria, deputy inspector general (DIG) of BSF (Punjab frontier), said, “On Sunday, a special search operation was carried out by troopers of 17th Battalion of the BSF on a tip-off in the Rear Kakkar border out post area.

During search around 10:20 am, the troopers recovered 3 tractor draw bars filled with the contraband (weight approximately 3 kg and 300 gm), suspected to be heroin, from a field near the fence.”

Kataria, however, didn’t disclose names of the farmer from whose field the contraband was recovered.

A senior BSF officer, who didn’t want to be named, said, “This is a new modus operandi adopted by Pakistan smugglers to smuggle heroin to India.”

“The Indian farmers, who have links with Pakistani smugglers, burry their tractor draw bars into the soil and attach other drawbars being thrown by Pakistan smugglers with concealed heroin to deceive the BSF,” he said.

In May, the counter-intelligence wing of the Punjab Police had recovered 1kg heroin concealed in a tractor’s drawbar from the Ferozepur sector.

A farmer, said, “A drawbar can contain around 1kg heroin. Some farmers have links with Pakistani smugglers and that is why smugglers have adopted this method.”