Chandigarh, July 1 (IANS): Punjab Police Tuesday claimed to have busted another international drug trafficking cartel and arrested eight people involved in the racket.
Police recovered over Rs.1.6 crore in cash, 615 kg of pseudoephedrine, including 8.19 lakh tablets made from pseudoephedrine, 6.5 kg of narcotic powder and a pistol with ammunition from the gang.
"Punjab Police busted an international synthetic drug trafficking cartel, unveiling supply chains emanating from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi through Chennai and Mizoram up to Malaysia and European countries, with the arrest of eight people from Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh," Inspector General of Police Paramjit Singh Gill said in Patiala, 80 km from here.
Gill said investigations into a drugs case registered in Fatehgarh Sahib in April 2013 led police to an international synthetic drug trafficking network operating from a base in Tamil Nadu.
He said the network of the gang was spread over Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.
R. Shiva Kumar, V. Venkatesh, M. Prabhu and S. Mani (all from Chennai), R.V. Sanmugam (from Kanchipuram), Sachin Sardana from New Delhi, Cerboih alias Cherry, a Myanmarese national (also carrying Indian passport) were arrested from New Delhi and Devinder Kant Sharma of Sirsa (Haryana) was arrested from Gagret in Himachal Pradesh.
Gill said a preliminary probe disclosed that the group procured pseudoephedrine and other narcotic substances from Himachal Pradesh and transported them by rail to Chennai.
From there, they were shipped to Myanmar and Malaysia for further transfer to Europe.
"Three Malaysians - Ibrahim, Rehman and Akbar - have been identified as the end recipients of these narcotics," Gill said.
The drug network "was a close-knit and secretive group" functional since the last 6-7 years, he said.
The operational control of this group was in Chennai from where computerised weighing machines and packing material have been seized.
Investigation also revealed that the drug cartel members were careful while talking on cell phones and would use different code words to indicate different types of drugs and the nature and timing of the drug consignments, Gill said.
Last week, Punjab Police had arrested five smugglers and recovered 27.5 kg of heroin being taken from Jammu and Kashmir to Rajasthan.