Ludhiana: Drug smuggler brothers, wives held with Rs 16 crore heroin

LUDHIANA: The Ludhiana unit of Special Task Force arrested two drug smuggler brothers and their wives with 3.2kg heroin, Rs 60,000 drug money, a .32 bore pistol, four magazines and 14 live cartridges near Ishar Nagar on Friday. The recovered contraband is worth Rs 16 crore in international market.
Raj Kumar, 28, his wife Anjali, 20, of Ishar Singh Nagar, Arun Kumar, 27, his wife Harpreet Kaur, 28, of Phullanwal village, Durgi, were on way to deliver the contraband to their customers when the police intercepted their SUV.
STF AIG Snehdeep Sharma said, “Raj and Arun — who hail from Kapurthala — are notorious criminals. Raj has four cases against him and Arun nine. These include scuffle, robbery, drug and liquor smuggling FIRs. In some of the cases, they have been declared proclaimed offenders. The two are drug addicts too. They are into the drug trade for almost a decade and have made much property with the ill-gotten money. The smugglers are financiers too.”
Police said they were the big fish of drug business and had links with an Amritsar-based gangster. “And that Amritsar gangster has cross-border contacts. Though Anjali and Harpreet don’t have any case against them, they were actively involved in the trade. The two women would fix deals, collect payments and accompany their husbands to avoid police suspicion,” the AIG added.
The accused would procure the contraband from a Delhi-based Nigerian and the Amritsar gangster. “We are trying to trace the Amritsar gangster. The brothers had bought the recovered weapon from Uttar Pradesh for Rs 30,000,” he said.
Another couple arrested
Following the interrogation of Raj and Arun, the STF arrested another Ludhiana couple involved in drug peddling.
“Naman Gupta, 30, and his wife Preeti, 26, of Giaspura were arrested with 810g heroin — which is worth Rs 4.05 crore in international market — on Friday. Their two-wheeler was stopped at a checkpost near 33 Feet Road, Giaspura. During checking, heroin was found hidden under the vehicle seat. The couple has been peddling drugs from the past one year. They would procure heroin from Arun,” the AIG said.
Wanted woman peddler
Wanted in a drug peddling case, Heena, a resident of Ghora Colony, was arrested with 200g heroin on Thursday. Her three accomplices have already been arrested. Heena has three cases of drug peddling against her and has been into the trade from the past five years.