July 5, 2019 by admin

Transit point Amritsar also big drug market

Amritsar

The biggest-ever seizure of over 550 kg of heroin concealed in a rock salt consignment at the Attari ICP makes it amply clear that the city continues to be the favoured transit destination of cross-border smugglers to push drugs into Punjab.

Despite the Amritsar Customs Department patting itself on the back for thwarting the designs of peddlers, the heroin haul raises several questions over the failure of Intelligence agencies and the surveillance at the ICP. There is every possibility that contraband in low quantities may have made its way into Punjab during earlier such attempts.

Punjab shares a 553-km-long border with Pakistan along Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts. Drugs are routed through the Golden Crescent via Afghanistan and Pakistan. Punjab being a border state is not only the transit point, but also a big market for drugs. Heroin is routed through the porous India-Pakistan border, opium and poppy husk is smuggled from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where its cultivation is legal, and charas and hashish come from Himachal Pradesh.

Officials say high-quality heroin from Delhi is suspected to be routed through Gujarat, Rajasthan’s Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts or Jammu and Kathua districts in J&K.

The most common method to push in drugs is hollow plastic pipes,10-12 metres in length, stuffed with heroin to dodge the electrified barbed fence. These are flung across from the fence in packets, say BSF sources. The other vulnerable points are riverine areas where there is virtually no fencing, as in Amritsar (Ramdas), Gurdaspur (Dera Baba Nanak) and Ferozepur.

Often couriers from Pakistan swim cross the Ravi to deliver the contraband. Indian smugglers use Pakistani SIM cards to evade Indian security agencies. Owing to strict vigilance at the border in view of the strained ties between the two nations, the smugglers are resorting to new ways to push in narcotics. Earlier, drugs would be sent across in cement bags and cavities of rail wagons, but in small quantities. In October 2012, Customs officials seized 105 kg of heroin worth Rs 525 crore in the international market from a goods train from Pakistan. More recently, on June 25, they confiscated 1.1-kg heroin concealed in a 5-foot-long pressure brake pipe of an empty wagon.

Those from economically weaker sections as well as addicts fall prey to lucrative ‘cuts’ and ‘generous share of doses’ by drug syndicates in lieu of acting as couriers.A kilogram of smuggled heroin, locally called ‘chitta’ , is tentatively valued at Rs 5 crore in the international market. In Afghanistan, it is much less. As it enters Pakistan, the cost escalates anything between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh. As it makes its way into India, it is priced 10 to 15 times over at Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh per kg. Officials claim that from Punjab, heroin consignments are routed to European countries through Delhi and Mumbai.

“With the ongoing crackdown on drug smuggling, the price varies between Rs 2,500/gm and Rs 4,000/ gm in border cities like Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur. In Ludhiana and Chandigarh, it ranges between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000. Among the consumers are women addicts, professionals, including cops, and VIP brats,” a top official told The Tribune.

Dr PD Garg, Government Medical College, Amritsar, says, “We receive patients in the 15 to 40 age bracket, including women, some of them housewives, mostly residing in slums. We have credible feedback that heroin and other narcotics are easily available despite the government’s anti-drug drive.”

It is believed that Pakistan’s ISI patronises narco cartels. Curiously, despite a full body truck scanner on Pakistan’s side, a Pakistani truck carrying 550 kg of heroin crossed over to India, evading detection. Amritsar Customs Commissioner Dipak Kumar Gupta blames Pakistan counterparts for the ‘lapse’. India is yet to install a full-body truck scanning system. It mainly relies on sniffer dogs.