— Punjab Accounts for freezing of half of illegally acquired properties of drug smugglers in India in 2024
CHANDIGARH, March 9:
In a decisive push to dismantle the financial backbone of the narcotics trade in the state, Punjab Police has frozen more than ₹600 crore worth of illegally acquired properties linked to drug traffickers in the last two years, marking a major milestone in its ongoing crackdown on the drug economy in the state. Impressively, Punjab accounted for 50% of all properties frozen in 2024 in drug cases in the country.
The strategy reflects a significant shift in enforcement priorities, from merely arresting offenders and seizing narcotics to systematically targeting the illicit wealth generated through drug trafficking. By hitting traffickers where it hurts the most, their illegal properties, Punjab Police aims to dismantle the economic infrastructure that sustains the drug trade.
The pace of property freezing has accelerated significantly in recent years. Assets worth approximately ₹330 crore were freezed in 2024, while properties valued at around ₹270 crore were freezed in 2025. Significantly, over ₹600 crore worth of illegal properties of drug smugglers have been freezed in the past two years alone, accounting for more than half of the nearly ₹1,000 crore worth of assets freezed since 2017, highlighting the intensified push to dismantle the financial foundations of the drug trade.
Punjab Police investigations now routinely track the proceeds of drug crime through properties, bank accounts, shell companies, benami holdings and luxury assets. Residential houses, commercial establishments, agricultural land and high-value vehicles which are acquired illegally have been identified and freezed under relevant provisions of law.
The crackdown forms an important pillar of the Punjab Government’s “Yudh Nashean Virudh” (War Against Drugs) campaign, which aims to combat the narcotics menace through coordinated enforcement, prevention, and rehabilitation measures. Under this campaign, Punjab Police has intensified intelligence-led operations and financial investigations to dismantle the networks that sustain the drug trade.
A senior Punjab Police official said the crackdown on illegal wealth acquired by drug smugglers is a deliberate strategy aimed at dismantling the incentive structure that sustains the drug trade. He said: “We are following what is amongst India’s most aggressive and financially intelligent anti-drug enforcement models. We are not only catching smugglers, but dismantling the financial empires built on drugs. Drug trafficking thrives on the promise of huge illegal profits. Our strategy is to destroy that incentive by systematically targeting and freezing assets created from drug money. When traffickers realize that their properties, land and wealth can be confiscated, the economic foundation of the drug trade begins to collapse. Economic disruption and financial warfare against drug trafficking is therefore a central pillar of Punjab Police’s anti-drug strategy.”
He added: “In earlier years, even when traffickers were arrested, their properties often remained untouched, allowing networks to regroup and continue operations through associates or family members. By aggressively freezing such assets, Punjab Police is ensuring that illegal gains cannot be protected or passed on within the ecosystem of the drug trade, with financial investigation and forfeiture/freezing of properties and assets as our core strategy. The state accounted for 50% of all properties frozen in 2024 in drug cases in the country.”
Across several districts, properties, ranging from houses and commercial buildings to agricultural land, now stand freezed, sending a strong signal that wealth generated from narcotics will not remain beyond the reach of law enforcement.
Beyond enforcement, the move also carries a powerful deterrent message for communities. Visible action against illegal acquired wealth demonstrates that the era of easy money from narcotics is coming to an end.
With property freezing crossing the ₹600 crore mark in the last two years alone, Punjab Police say the effort represents a sustained long-term strategy to weaken the economic networks behind narcotics trafficking. They added that by stripping traffickers of their illegal wealth, the state is reshaping the risk-reward calculation that once made the drug trade attractive. The message, they say, is clear: in Punjab, drugs no longer pay.
