Punjab Police arrested 19,093 drug smugglers in 14 months

Police teams have recovered around 240 kg heroin from across the state just in August.

Chandigarh: Punjab Police have arrested 19,093 drug smugglers, including 2,778 big fish, in the past 14 months, Inspector General of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill said on Monday.

He said that a total of 14,179 first information reports (FIRs) of which 1,717 related to commercial quantity were registered.

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Gill told the media here that the police have recovered 1400 kg heroin after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.

Additionally, 147.5 kg heroin was recovered by Punjab Police from seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 1,548.27 kg in just 14 months.

“Police teams have recovered around 240 kg heroin from across the state just in August,” he added.

Apart from seizing big-haul of heroin, the IGP said police have also recovered 871.82 kg opium, 446.30 quintals of poppy husk, and 90.59 lakhs tablets, capsules, injections and vials of pharma opioids from across the state. The Police have also recovered Rs 13.96 crore of drug money.

To eradicate the menace of drugs from the state as committed by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Gill said the police under the leadership of Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav have enforced a three-pronged strategy — enforcement, public contact programme and demand reduction.

“There will be district-specific or police station specific plan against drugs under which police teams will hold meetings in all villages and mohallas to sensitise people about the ill-effects of the drugs,” he said.

To reduce the demand, he said that the police will involve district administrations, the Health, Education and the Sports Departments to identify the consumers and rehabilitate them to channelise their energy in the right direction.