Punjab Drug Kingpin Wanted for 532 Kilo Heroin Haul Arrested, Cops Probe Pak Route

Chandigarh: In an early morning operation on Saturday, the Punjab police swooped down to arrest the biggest drug lord and his brother from Sirsa, Haryana. The operation was carried out around 5am on Saturday.

The drug smugglers Ranjeet Rana Cheeta of Amritsar and his brother Gagandeep Bhola were wanted in the 532-kg heroin haul case from Attari in June 2019. The duo was arrested from Begu village in Haryana’s Sirsa.

“Following up further on arrests of Hizbul operatives in Jammu and Kashmir & Punjab, Punjab Police juggernaut moved further to nab Ranjeet Rana Cheeta of Amritsar, one of the biggest drug smugglers of India from Sirsa,” Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta tweeted.

According to the police, Rana is suspected to have smuggled heroin in and other drugs from Pakistan by camouflaging as many as six rock salt consignments through the Indo-Pak border at Attari in Amritsar between 2018 and 2019.

On Friday, the Punjab police had arrested most wanted gangster Baljinder Singh, alias Billa, who had alleged links with the now reportedly deceased Pakistan-based KLF chief Harmeet Singh Happy, as well as Germany-based Bagga of KZF.

Another notorious gangster Sukhjinder and five other members of the Billa gang, have also been arrested, along with a large consignment of highly sophisticated weapons smuggled in from Pakistan, as well as drug money, reportedly smuggled from across the border through several modes, including drones.

According to DGP Gupta, the arrests were made in a joint operation by the Organized Crime Control Unit team from Chandigarh, Counter Intelligence Jalandhar Unit and Kapurthala Police, who identified the arrested as Baljinder Singh, alias Billa Mandiala (r/o Mandiala, Gurdaspur), Sukhjinder Singh (r/o village Kamoke Beas, Amritsar).

Kapurthala-based Mohit Sharma, Lovepreet Singh, Mangal Singh and Maninderjeet Singh or Happy, and Lovepreet Singh or Lovely (r/o Amarkot, Valtoha Tarn Taran) were also among those arrested on Friday.

Baljinder Singh was wanted in more than 18 criminal cases, including, murder, attempt to murder and smuggling of weapons/drugs etc.

The accused have been kept separately as they are being tested for COVID-19 by a special team of doctors.

The police teams have recovered highly sophisticated weapons that were smuggled in from Pakistan, from these accused. The recoveries include two 30 bore Drum Machine Guns, three Pistols (Marked SIG Sauer made in Germany), two Glock Pistols (made in Austria), two 30 bore Pistols, one 32 bore Pistol, one .315 bore Rifle, 341 live Cartridges and two drum magazines, 14 Pistol magazines along with drug-money of Rs 30, 8018 and 100 Australian dollars, said Gupta.