Punjab Police mega crackdown on drugs; 406kg heroin, 300kg opium recovered in four months [details]

During the last four months, Punjab Police recovered over 406 kilograms of heroin in a special drive against narcotics smugglers and drug mafia in the State. The Punjab Police have arrested as many as 6,997 drug smugglers including 1,097 big fish since July 5, 2022. The Police have registered a total of 5,346 first information reports (FIRs) against those who were involved in smuggling narcotics.

Sharing details about the recovery of drugs during a four-month-long special drive, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Police Sukhchain Singh Gill said that the police teams have recovered 259.7 kg of heroin from across the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas besides laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state.

He, however, said that 147.5 kilograms of heroin was recovered by the teams of Punjab Police from seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 406.5Kgs in just four months.

300 kilograms of opium, 197 kgs of ganja recovered

The IGP further informed that apart from recovering a big-haul of heroin, the police have also recovered 300 kilograms of opium, 197.2 kilograms of ganja, 293 quintals of poppy husk, and 27.56 lakhs tablets, capsules, and injections from across the state.

The police have also recovered Rs 4.49 crores of drug money from the possession of drug smugglers arrested in these four months.

As drug addiction has become the biggest challenge in Punjab to save the younger generation, an aggressive drive has been launched to make Punjab a drug-free state. Extensive anti-drug drives have been launched by the Punjab Police to combat the menace of drugs from the border State.

Police officers have been directed to identify all hotspots where drugs are prevalent and all top drug smugglers in their jurisdictions.

Police officers have been further directed to effectively forfeit the property of all the arrested drug smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.

As reported earlier, over three million people, amounting to around 15.4% of the population in Punjab, are currently consuming one or the other kind of drugs. However, alcohol is a maximally abused substance with over two million people consuming it in the state.

This was revealed in a study conducted by the community medicine department of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh in February this year.
The study was conducted by edited by Dr JS Thakur, professor of community medicine at the PGIMER, Chandigarh in his book, " Roadmap for Prevention and Control of Substance Abuse in Punjab". The second edition of the book was released in February this year.