Heroin worth Rs 20cr seized; 5 held

New Delhi: Five persons, including a 55-year- old woman, were arrested and heroin worth around Rs 20 crore allegedly seized from their possession as Delhi Police claimed to have busted an inter-state drug cartel.

The accused, identified as Balkar Singh (36), Gurcharan Singh (35), Manjeet Singh (40), Satnam Singh (42) and Krishna Devi (55), allegedly used to procure drugs from several states and supplied the same mostly to their clientele in Punjab, DCP (Special Cell) SK Yadav said today.

A Special Cell team first arrested Balkar and Gurcharan, both recently released from Kapurthala jail in Punjab, on March 16. The duo had picked up a consignment from sources in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Around 3.50kg heroin was recovered from their possession, police said.

During interrogation, they told police they had met one Satnam Singh in jail and he was their main supplier. Satnam turned out to be a leading drug dealer in UP’s Shahjahanpur who also had his network in Roorkee and Haridwar.

After he was arrested, Satnam led police to Manjeet, who was nabbed on March 18. The last accused, Krishna Devi, was arrested yesterday. Police said they recovered another 2.25kg of heroin during the investigation.

“The value of the total heroin recovered is worth around Rs 20 crore on the international market,” a senior official said.

Police said Krishna Devi has been in the narcotics business for around 25 years and was earlier arrested in cases of kidnapping for ransom, dacoity, rioting, etc. Her husband was a farmer who passed away in 2007.