Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 1: Moving ahead to curb the menace of drug trade, Jammu Police achieved another big success when it busted another inter-state racket of drug traffickers with the arrest of three persons hailing from District Kupwara, Kashmir and recovered 4 kilograms heroin valued at Rs 20 crore in the international market from their possession.
This was stated by Superintendent of Police (SP) Jammu South Shaazad Salaria while interacting with media persons during a press conference at Gandhi Nagar police station this evening.
Salaria informed that based on specific inputs, sleuths of Special Operation Group (SOG) and Police laid a naka at Panama Chowk and signaled a Tata Sumo bearing registration number JK09A-2557 to stop for checking.
Sensing trouble, the driver accelerated the vehicle and tried to escape, but the cops chased and intercepted the vehicle, he said, adding that during checking heroin packed in 4 packets weighing one kilogram each was seized from the vehicle.
SP said that the packets were kept in ordinary polythene bags to give impression of ordinary objects. However, the cops subjected each bag for thorough checking and found heroin further packed in fine cotton sealed packets.
Salaria stated that three persons including driver of the vehicle were arrested on the spot. The accused have been identified as Mir Haider, son of Manzoor Shah of Pingla, Haridal Tangdar, Kupwara, Istyaq Hussain Shah, son of Nazir Hussain Shah of Jabri Tangdar, Kupwara and Altaf Hussain Shah, son of Ali Shah of Chaterkot, Kupwara.
He added that the consignment had been smuggled from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the smugglers had collected it from Kupwara sector of Kashmir and were about to sale it among the youths in Jammu and Punjab to make them drug addicts.
Three mobile phones and Rs 25,000 cash were also recovered from the possession of the drug traffickers, SP Shaazad Salaria said, adding that the vehicle in which they was traveling in has been seized.
There were reports that the accused had to sell the consignment to international market through some conduits. They were being quizzed to ascertain names of the conduits to whom they had to hand over the consignment and the persons, who handed over narcotics to them at Tangdar, Salaria said, adding that a major international racket could be cracked after disclosures of the accused as their interrogation was still at preliminary stage.
A case under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been registered against the accused at Gandhi Nagar police station and investigation started.
It is to mention here that last month, Jammu Police also busted a racket of inter-state drug suppliers and recovered 20 kilograms heroin from Narwal area and arrested four drug suppliers. The kingpin Shafiq Ahmed of that recovery was also from Tangdar, District Kupwara.
A team of Special Operations Group (SOG) Jammu joined by the police personnel from Gandhi Nagar police station led by SHO Inspector Bishnesh Kumar made the arrest under the supervision of SDPO South Sachin Gupta, SP South Shaazad Salaria and SP Operations Nassir Ahmed.
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