Chandigarh: The ongoing war against drugs launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann dealt a major blow to the cross-border smuggling after Punjab Police foiled a major drug smuggling bid by Pakistan-based smugglers after recovering five packets of heroin, weighing 5.60 kg, along with a hexacopter drone, which was used to drop the consignment, during a search operation launched at border area of Khemkaran in Tarn Taran. The operation was carried out with the support of the Border Security Force (BSF).

Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav said that after noticing the drone movement in Indo-Pak border on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, Police teams from Tarn Taran district immediately shared the pin-pointed inputs with the BSF and jointly conducted an intensive search operation in the area, which was just 2kms away from the Indo-Pak border.

“During the search, a blue and black coloured hexacopter drone (model – E616S) alongwith black tape-wrapped 5 packets of heroin weighing 5.60kg, was found lying in the agricultural land of a local resident,” he said, while adding that the preliminary investigations suggests this drone was found to be having a modern technology and it could lift a good amount of weight.

This is the third such drone recovered by the Tarn Taran Police in less than a week. Earlier, a hexacopter drone and a tape-wrapped package containing six packets of heroin, weighing 6.68 kg, was recovered in the jurisdiction of Border Outpost (BOP) Harbhajan in Khemkaran on Tuesday. On the very next day, a broken quadcopter drone was recovered from the area of village Van Tara Singh in Khalra.

Sharing more details, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Tarn Taran Sukhminder Singh Mann said that investigations are on to ascertain the identity of the Pak smugglers, who sent the consignment via drone, and also their Indian associates, who were to receive this air-dropped consignment of heroin.

Meanwhile, a case FIR No. 79 Dated 02.12.2022 has been registered under sections 21-C, 23, 27-A and 29 of the NDPS Act and sections 10, 11 and 12 of the Aircraft Act at Khemkaran Police Station in Tarn Taran.