— 65K DRUG SMUGGLERS HELD WITH 2950KG HEROIN, 792KG OPIUM, 666-QTLs POPPY HUSK, 56KG ICE AND ₹20CR DRUG MONEY SINCE MARCH 1, 2025
— DGP GAURAV YADAV REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO BREAK THE ECONOMIC BACKBONE OF DRUG CARTELS
— 65 HAWALA OPERATORS HELD WITH ₹8.85 CR HAWALA MONEY
CHANDIGARH, May 31:
With the ongoing decisive war against drugs ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ has completed 15 months, Punjab Police has systematically dismantled the financial infrastructure of organised drug trafficking networks, striking a severe blow to the narco-hawala syndicates operating across the state, culminating in the strategic freezing of illicit assets of around 750 drug smugglers valued at ₹300 crore, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Sunday.
“The Punjab police force has systematically shifted its focus from mere street-level seizures to dismantling the broader economic infrastructure that funds cross-border smuggling,” said the DGP.
Since the launch of this anti-drug drive, Punjab Police has been conducting operations daily simultaneously in all the 28 Police districts of the state.
DGP Gaurav Yadav highlighted that since the launch of the drive, Punjab Police has registered 46,937 first information reports (FIRs) under the NDPS Act and arrested 65,884 accused individuals. The enforcement operations have led to massive contraband recoveries including 2950 kg of heroin, 792 kg of opium, 666 quintals of poppy husk, 71 kg of charas, 986 kg of ganja, 56 kg of ICE, and 55 lakh intoxicant pills or tablets, he said.
The DGP said that alongside these massive narcotics seizures, police teams have also recovered ₹20 crore drug money from the arrested accused persons.
A major breakthrough of the campaign is the aggressive targeting of the clandestine hawala channels that move massive profits back to foreign handlers and Pakistani suppliers, he said, while adding that these networks operate through shell companies, encrypted applications like WhatsApp and Signal, and virtual international numbers.
To counter these sophisticated evasion tactics, DGP Gaurav Yadav said that Punjab Police has established dedicated Financial Investigation Units (FIUs) in every single district to assist investigating officers. This structural upgrade led to the arrest of 65 hawala operators and the recovery of ₹8.85 crore in hawala money, he said.
In one of the most significant operations, he said a major financial disruption was achieved by recovering and freezing assets worth ₹5.09 crore from Sharma Forex Money Exchange in Phagwara, which laundered money under the guise of driver salary payments for a Pakistan-based handler via UAE channels.
Highlighting another critical node of this cross-border network, he said that police teams had recovered ₹20.55 lakh from a Bikaner-based operator in Ludhiana who managed advance payments from Pakistan to fund drug couriers. Similarly, in Amritsar, a narco-arms nexus was exposed with the recovery of ₹1.24 crore in Indian currency alongside foreign cash, he said.
Terming this unprecedented success heavily supported by advanced technology and intelligence-led policing, the DGP said, “The integration of the Punjab Artificial Intelligence System (PAIS) revolutionised investigation quality by managing a massive database of 1.36 lakh NDPS FIRs and over 93,000 voice samples.”
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that furthermore, by shifting focus identifying entire supply chains through systematic backward and forward linkage analysis of approximately 43,400 cases, the police mapped 45,809 criminal network connections. Device forensics played a pivotal role, with laptops and seized mobile phones providing the critical technical evidence required to expose the foreign virtual numbers and encrypted communication used by the cartels, he added.
