Drugs: UN report had sounded alert, but police called it ‘false’
Tuesday, 12/03/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130312/punjab.htm#6
Bathinda : That Punjab is a major transit point for drugs to the US and Canada has been re-affirmed with the busting of yet another drug ring allegedly involving policemen and sportspersons.
Earlier too the Punjab Police, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the counter-intelligence wing of the state police along with the Delhi police collectively busted several groups involved in the racket. However, investigations in most cases reached a dead end.
A drug carrier or his leader usually do not know about the kingpin. Hence, their arrest provides no leads and the investigation hits a dead end.
Informed sources said that peddlers in the past have used religious leaders and books for smuggling drugs to western countries from Punjab. The World Drug Report 2006 was the first to mention Punjab as the transit point for narcotics, stating that heroin and opium from Afghanistan and Pakistan reached Punjab via its borders with Pakistan or from Jammu and Kashmir. In Ludhiana, the drugs were not only stored but also purified to make drugs like Ecstasy, which is used in rave parties.
Though the then state police chief dismissed the UN report as false, the Delhi police busted an international syndicate with the arrest of Toronto-based Gurdish Singh Toor alias Amarjeet Singh from Ludhiana.
An Intelligence report in 2000 had claimed that 200 policemen were hand in glove with drug smugglers. “There are policemen who drive swanky cars and own huge properties. A sustained operation can bust the police-smuggler nexus.”
In 2008, Head Constable Rachan Singh, a kabaddi player with 70 medals in national and international tournaments to his credit, was arrested for hobnobbing with smugglers. He had been specially deployed with the counter-intelligence unit of the state police to nab the smugglers. The policeman owned a Ford Endeavour, a Skoda Octavia and two Lancer cars. A Canadian NRI, Arvinder Singh, and two others were also caught with the policeman.
