“The Chief Minister declared that while the back of the drugs mafia had been successfully broken, the war was still continuing, with narco-terrorists from across the border continuing to push drugs into Punjab, using drones and other routes,” the spokesperson added. (Representational)
In a symbolic gesture to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the Punjab Police on Friday destroyed several quintals of illicit drugs at various places across all districts .
“The destruction of the drugs came amid Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s assertion that his government would not rest till every single drug smuggler/trader is behind bars and the drug mafia is completely eliminated from Punjab’s soil and the state is freed from the menace,” said an official spokesperson in a written statement.
“The Chief Minister declared that while the back of the drugs mafia had been successfully broken, the war was still continuing, with narco-terrorists from across the border continuing to push drugs into Punjab, using drones and other routes,” the spokesperson added.
Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said “teams of Punjab Police took over the task of destroying 62.140 kg of heroin, along with 326.52 quintals of poppy husk, 12.536 kg of charas, 490 grams of sulfa, 755.905 kg of smack, 1.970 kg of brown sugar, 148.280 kg of intoxicant powder, 137.106 kg of ganja, along with 14,36,410 pills/capsules, 9941 syringes and 1101 syrup bottles”.
“In addition, 41.880 kg of opium was deposited in Government Opium and Alkaloid Factory,” said Gupta, reiterating the Punjab Police’s “commitment to eliminate drugs from Punjab, which has seen a marked increase in the number of drug users join the state government’s de-addiction programme since imposition of curfew/lockdown in Punjab”.
“Around 1.3 lakh drug users have joined the de-addiction programme since March, indicating reduction in the availability of drugs in villages/towns, which had a total of 12 lakh harmful/dependent drug users in the state as per a Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, Survey of 2019, when only 5.41 lakh of the users were undergoing treatment at the private/government de-addiction centres,” the DGP said.
“The concerted efforts of the Punjab Police, including the Special Task Force (STF), have led to manifold increase in heroin seizure in the state in less than four years – from 207 kg in 2016 to 410 kg (2018), 464 kg in 2019 and 504 kg in 2020,” he said.