CHANDIGARH: In a joint operation with central agencies, the Punjab police nabbed international drug smuggler Simranjot Singh Sandhu who was the kingpin of a 487 kg cocaine smuggling racket unearthed in 2020 in Germany.Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on Saturday said the development came after meticulous investigations carried out by the Moga Police into the arrest of local drug smugglers Beant Singh and Sukhdeep Singh, who were arrested with one kg heroin on June 16. Yadav said the 30-year-old Sandhu is a lynchpin of an international drug cartel and is wanted in Germany for drug offences. Preliminary investigations have revealed that he played a major role in smuggling drugs into India and European countries, he added.Inspector General of Police (Headquarters) Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill accompanied by DIG Faridkot Range Ashwani Kapur and Senior Superintendent of Police of Moga Dr Ankur Gupta said that during the follow-up investigations into the one kg heroin recovery case, Moga police arrested Sandhu, a native of village Gokhuwal in Batala, from village Bhaloor in Moga.They said that Sandhu, who went to Germany in 2002, was working as a taxi driver. From March 2020 to June 2020, he had stored and transported at least 487 kg cocaine, 66 kg marijuana and 10 kg hashish supplied from Brazil and other South American countries, which landed at the port in Hamburg. The accused used to communicate on an encrypted mobile app ‘Encrochat’ through which the drug network was unearthed by the German police, they said.Later, Sandhu was convicted for eight years and six months under section 29 of the Narcotic Drugs Act by Germany courts on February 28, 2022, but without completing his sentence he fled to Dubai in July 2023 and then came to India in September 2023.
Source link
