CHANDIGARH: Smugglers from Pakistan are trying novel ways like throwing small contraband packets and using cross-border irrigation network to push drugs into the Indian side in Punjab.
"As it has become difficult to smuggle big packets of contraband of 1 kg and above, the smugglers are now trying to push heroin in small quantity like in 250 grams. They throw the packets from across the border during the night," BSF Inspector General (Punjab Frontier) Mukul Goel said.
The contraband is then picked up by the local smugglers here, he said.
He said the Border Security Force (BSF) has seized 65.561 kg of heroin so far in this year near the Indo-Pak border.
Zonal Director (Chandigarh Zone unit), Narcotics Control Bureau, Kaustubh Sharma said supplying contraband in smaller quantities means less loss for the smugglers if the substance is seized by the security agencies.
The BSF personnel also found smugglers using tube wells for supplying drugs into the Indian side at Daoke area along the Indo-Pak border in Amritsar.
The force this month seized 5 kg of heroin which was smuggled into Indian side through a water pipe.
"The plastic pipe of a tube well was used to supply heroin in bottles as the field was located beyond the fence. A string was attached to the bottles to help local smugglers here to pull them out," Goel told PTI.
"The white-powdered heroin was packed in plastic bottles in such a way that it looked like 'lassi' (yogurt based drink) apparently to hoodwink the BSF troops," an official said.
As the wheat harvesting season is on, the local associates sometimes try to hide narcotic substance in cavity of tractors, he said.
The BSF is keeping a strict vigil near culverts and water channels to prevent supply of drugs.
The force is also coordinating with the Punjab government as part of the latter's campaign to end drug menace from the state.
"We are working with the Punjab police in this regard,"
Goel said.
After assuming office, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had formed a Special Task Force (STF) to end drug mafia in the state.
The STF had claimed that it arrested more than 1,400 persons and registered 1,250 cases under the NDPS Act, while "choking" the trans-border and interstate-border drugs supply lines since March 16.