Punjab Police on Saturday busted a cross-border drug smuggling module in Amritsar with the arrest of two persons and the recovery of 64.62kg of heroin from them.
Director general of police Gaurav Yadav said the state special operations cell (SSOC) and counter-intelligence wing have neutralised a cross-border smuggling module with the seizure of 64.62kg of heroin near Amritsar’s Mahal village. Two suspects, Sarwan Singh, alias Gujjar, and Shamsher Singh, alias Shera, both local residents, were arrested during the operation.
Yadav said the module has direct links to Pakistan-based smugglers and handlers operating from Portugal.
Preliminary investigations suggest the duo was in constant communication with a notorious Pakistan-based gang previously linked to the 532kg heroin seizure by the customs department in 2019.
This breakthrough is seen as a significant success under the state’s ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ (War Against Drugs) campaign. An FIR has been registered at the SSOC Amritsar police station, and officials are now mapping the network’s forward and backward linkages to identify domestic distributors and financial beneficiaries.
The 64.62kg haul ranks among the largest since the 2019 Attari border incident, where 532 kg of heroin—then the biggest in Indian Customs history—was found concealed in a rock salt consignment from Pakistan.
In the first quarter of 2026 alone, the Border Security Force (BSF) and Punjab Police have intercepted over 330kg of heroin along the border, a pace that rivals the record 2,021kg seized in 2025. This surge is largely attributed to the evolving tactics of smugglers who now utilize drones and foreign-based coordinators to bypass traditional border security.
