Chandigarh, June 20, 2024 (Yes Punjab News)
As the ongoing special operation to wipe out drugs launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann entered its fifth day, Punjab Police on Thursday trained guns on big drug smugglers or big fish— who are currently out of jail, by raiding their safe havens across the state.
Big fish are those drug smugglers, who were caught with 2kg or above quantity of contraband.
The operation was conducted on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav from 7am to 12noon simultaneously across all 28 Police districts in the state.
Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla, who was personally monitoring this state-level operation, said that there are 356 big fish caught with 2kg or above contraband in 257 NDPS cases in the state, and 246 of them are out on bail and found to be active during the last five years.
He said that the list of all the 246 big drug smugglers was shared among all the CPs/SSPs and the latter were directed to depute strong police parties headed by inspectors/sub-inspectors to carry out these searches to make this operation successful, which was aimed at disrupting the drug nexus.
Police teams were also asked to round up suspicious persons during the operation and look for any incriminating material/electronic devices for further probe, he added.
The Special DGP said that over 113 number of police parties, involving 1200 police personnel, conducted raids at premises/hideouts of 246 big smugglers and checked 188 of them.
Incriminating material including mobile phones has been seized during raids, he said, while adding that the material collected during the search operation is being examined further.
Pertinently, such raids help in infusing fear among the anti-social elements, whilst instilling a sense of safety and security among the common people.
