2 smugglers held with Rs 5-crore heroin from Tibba Road

Ludhiana: The Special Task Force (Ludhiana Range) arrested two drug smugglers after 1-kg heroin was recovered from their possession on Tibba Road on Tuesday.
Satpal Singh, 34, a resident of Jaspal Bangar, and Shamsher Singh of Mohalla Gagan Nagar in Daba would procure the drug from Nigerians in Delhi and pull a fast one on them by making part payment in fake currency.
STF (Ludhiana Range) in-charge inspector Harbans Singh said, “The duo was nabbed with 1-kg heroin, worth Rs 5 crore in international market, from Gopal Nagar on a tip-off. Satpal, a driver and native of Sidhwan Bet, has been peddling drugs from the past 10 years. Of the seven NDPS cases registered against him, he was convicted in four. A few months ago, he came out on bail and again took to the drug trade.”
Shamsher, who works at a factory in Sahnewal, is facing trials in two cases, including those of attempt to murder and scuffle. After joining Satpal, he started peddling drugs two years ago.
“Both Satpal and Shamsher are friends and drug addicts. Two years ago, they came to know about two men in Mullanpur Dakha who print fake currency, and started taking counterfeit notes from them. The would mix the fake notes with the original ones while making payments to Nigerian smugglers,” the inspector added.
The duo told during interrogation that the Nigerian smugglers never checked the packets of cash they handed over to them and that the trick swelled their profits.
The STF team, along with Mullanpur Dakha police, is on the lookout for the two men — Harry and Garry — who printed fake currency.
“Satpal and Shamsher would supply heroin to peddlers in Ludhiana who further sold it to their customers. We will check their clientele,” the inspector said.
The arrest of a Shimlapuri man on September 12 led police to the two smugglers. “Ravinder Singh was caught with 1kg heroin and 100gm ICE. During interrogation, he told that the car he was using for smuggling drugs was of Satpal. Following the information, we started hunting for Satpal,” he added.