Drug supply racket busted, Nigerian among 3 arrested
780 gm of heroin, ₹8.8 lakh and a car recovered
JALANDHAR: The counter-intelligence wing and the police on Monday jointly busted an international racket of drug smugglers, who had been selling drugs in the state for the past few months, and arrested three of them.
One of the arrested is a Nigerian citizen. The police recovered 780 gm of heroin, ₹8.8 lakh and a Zen car from their possession.
The accused have been identified as Nigeria-based Chinedu, currently living in Delhi, Sarabjit Singh, 32, of Sidhwan Dona village, Kapurthala, and Varinder Singh, 28, of Boot village in Kapurthala district.
Counter-intelligence wing AIG Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, who led the operation, said all the three were arrested on a tip-off when Nigerian Chinedu came to Jalandhar to hand over a consignment of 780 gm heroin valued at almost ₹4 crore in the international market to his Punjab state counterparts Sarabjit and Varinder.Their car was also impounded.
“During preliminary interrogation, it came to the fore that another Nigerian “Mike”, living in Dwarka, Delhi, is the kingpin of the module. He had deputed Chinedu as his agent to look after the drug supply in the state,” Khakh said.
He said that Chinedu confessed, during interrogation, that he had come to India to purchase clothes for his shop in Nigeria.
He said he frequently visited India till his shop was closed in 2015. Since 2015, he had been staying in India and worked as a singer (musician) and performed in party events of African people.
He met Mike at the end of 2017 at a function. Later, when he was hospitalised due to severe diabetes, Mike came to see him in the hospital.
Chinedu said he was short of money at that time. Following this, Mike convinced Chinedu to supply drugs and earn easy money, the police said.
Police said that Sarabjit Singh is working as a mason in his village.
He is also a drug addict and facing two drug cases.
He came into contact with Nigerian drug smugglers when he was lodged in the Kapurthala jail in 2017.
Varinder, who is a carpenter, used to supply drugs to truck drivers of the Subhanpur area.
The accused were produced in the court on Monday and remanded to four days police custody.
MODUS OPERANDI
Chinedu first concealed drugs in egg-shaped capsules and concealed them in his undergarments. He usually used public transport to travel from Delhi to Punjab.
A case under the relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act (NDPS) has been registered at the Model Town police station against them.