-4.75 KG OF DATE RAPE DRUG, 6 KG OF OPIUM SEIZED, NEW `COURIER SERVICES’ ROUTE OF DRUG SMUGGLING DISCOVERED
Chandigarh : Cracking down further on the big fish in the drugs trade, the Punjab Police has arrested four persons, who were using the courier services route to smuggle drugs abroad, thus busting an international module of drug smugglers reportedly controlled from Canada. 
The arrests, which have given a major boost to Captain Amarinder Singh led government’s campaign against drugs, have exposed an international drugs syndicate, which was found to be controlling the module that was involved in smuggling Opium and the potent date rape drug Ketamine. 
AIG Counter Intelligence HKPS Khakh, who had been chasing the Canadian, Davinder Dev, for quite some time, said the racket was found to be masterminded by Canadian citizens, Kamaljit Singh Chauhan, residing in Toronto, Canada, who hails from village Nagar, Phillaur of district Jalandhar, and Davinder Nirwal @ Dev basically R/o Ganganagar, Rajasthan, and currently residing at H.no. 53, Gurbax Singh Nagar, Khanna, Ludhiana. 
Dev, a big name in the drug smuggling world, had been under close watch by the Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), said Khakh, who strategized the joint operation undertaken by the Counter Intelligence Wing and District Police Jalandhar Rural.
The police have seized the 4.75 kgs of costly drug “Ketamine” and 6 kgs. of “Opium”, neatly packed in double layered seven “Big Cooking Bowls“ (Cauldron), basically used for preparations of “Langar” material.
Apart from Dev (68), the other accused have been identified as Ajit Singh (45) s/o Harjinder Singh r/o village Jaitewali PS Patara Jalandhar, Tarlochan Singh (42) s/o Harjinder singh r/o village Jaitewali PS Patara Jalandhar and Gurbax Singh (50) s/o Pargat Singh r/o village Katthe, PS Bullowal, Hoshiarpur.
Giving details of the arrests, Khakh said that the joint teams, acting on a tip-off, carried out a special operation on Haripur T-Point near Jandu Singha and arrested the four persons traveling in two cars – Nissan Micra and Nissan Terrano. They were carrying seven big cooking bowls, with the drugs hidden in specially made seven big cauldrons transfer to Canada, through a courier company. The use of private couriers or postal services is a new modus operandi used by global drug smugglers to avoid police and other agencies.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the consignment was prepared by Kamaljit Chohan, who visited India last winter and fixed a deal with the accused for smuggling of Ketamine and Opium to Canada. As per the agreement, Davinder @ Dev and Ajit Singh@ Jeet were to arrange drugs from their Indian sources and pack them properly while Chohan had taken the responsibility to further take the drugs to Canada through “Courier” route which was known only to him.
Initially, on a trial basis, they sent two consignments of Opium, weighing 6 Kg and 14 Kg respectively, packed nicely in “Sweet Boxes”, to Kamaljit, who took this delivery near Jalandhar bus stand through his men, for whom a hunt is now on. After successfully taking two deliveries, Kamaljit asked Dev and Jeet to now deliver the costly Ketamine drug, along with Opium.
On Kamaljit’s direction, Ajit Singh Jeet purchased 14 big cooking bowls from Malerkotla, and, after hiding the drugs in between two layers, he got the upper brims of two bowls soldiered to make them appear as one bowl. Seven such bowls were prepared by Jeet, who was specially trained in welding and had bought Opium from Madhya Pradesh and Ketamine from Rampur (U.P). Ajit Singh also involved his brother Tarlochan Singh, a truck driver, and his cousin Gurbax Singh, whose fake ID was made to facilitate the delivery.
The consignment was first taken to “Shri Dev Courier” of Sheikha Bazaar of Jalandhar but Kamaljit later instructed them to take it back from the courier company and send it through another company. Fake IDs were shared with the courier company to cover their tracks.
A total of five persons, including the main Canadian organisers, have been booked in case FIR number 01 dated 17.06.2018, under the provisions of the NDPS Act, along with 420,465,467,468,471 IPC, registered in Police Station Patara of Jalandhar rural.
A police spokesperson said the drug syndicate had a well-established chain of supply within India and abroad, and the police were on the trail of others involved in the racket, as well as the courier route used by them. All payments were being made through Hawala channels, which are also under investigation.
Giving the background of the main accused, the spokesperson said Dev was a notorious smuggler who had been arrested in 2011 for international smuggling of narcotics. He had made huge properties from drug money and had purchased a Commercial Plaza of 6000 sq feet, along with some other properties in Jaipur, which had been sealed by ED.
Davinder Nirwal operates his smuggling channel abroad as well as in different states of India, including Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan, Dubai and Canada. Earlier, he had smuggled around 5 quintals of Ketamine through containers from Jaipur to Canada through Kandla port in Gujarat.
Ajit Singh@ Jeet is a known heroin smuggler, who was earlier arrested under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act and fake currency cases, and remained in jail till September 2017. After coming out from jail, he came in contact with Davinder @Dev and both decided to do drug business together.
The deal was that Jeet would arrange drugs from Indian sources and Dev from foreign customers, and work in collaboration with Kamaljit.
