Police have busted an international drug smuggling racket that concealed drugs in two cooking woks (kadhais) soldered together, and sent these to Canada through a courier company, with the arrest of four men, including a Canadian resident. Similar kind of woks are used in preparation of langars at small gurdwaras.
A Jalandhar police team nabbed the men in two cars with 4.75-kg of ketamine (a popular and expensive party drug) and 6-kg opium packed in seven such soldered woks at Haripur T-Point near Jandu Singha village on Sunday morning. The anaesthetic ketamine produces a dissociative sensation that has made it a popular recreational drug. The men got it from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, with the opium sourced from Madhya Pradesh.
The men — Canadian national Davinder Nirwal alias Dev, 68, of Ganganagar, Rajasthan, currently residing in Khanna; Ajit Singh, 45; Tarlochan Singh, 42, of Jaitewali village in Jalandhar and Gurbax Singh, 50, of Katthe village, Hoshiarpur — were on their way to hand over the drug consignment to a courier company. Their cars, a Nissan Micra and a Nissan Terrano were impounded.
Kadhais bought from Malerkotla
“The accused purchased 14 woks from Malerkotla. After concealing the drugs in between layers, the upper brims of the two were soldered. This gave it the appearance of a single unit. Ajit, who specially trained in welding for this purpose, soldered these,” said HKPS Khakh, assistant inspector general (AIG), counter-intelligence. He is also the investigating officer.
‘Mastermind a Canadian resident’
“The mastermind of the gang is a Canadian citizen, Kamaljit Singh Chauhan. He is settled in Toronto, but hails from Jalandhar,” Khakh added.
The Canadian national arrested on Sunday, Dev, had been jailed in January 2014 in connection with the Bhola drug case. He got bail in February 2015. Before his arrest, he used to smuggle ketamine in containers from Jaipur to Canada through Kandla port in Gujarat. Police claim he owns property worth crores in the country.
“After release from jail, Dev again started his drug smuggling network. He had got to know second gang member Ajit in jail. He joined in to make easy money,” Khak added.
New modus operandi
Police claim that previously, the men had sent two consignments (6kg and 14 kg) of opium to Canada. “Global drug smugglers are now using this new modus operandi of using private couriers or postal services to send drug consignments,” Khak added. The courier company was given fake identity cards. Police have not revealed the courier company’s name, claiming investigation is on.
Police add that for the consignment of ketamine and opium seized on Sunday, the mastermind, Chauhan, had visited India from Canada in 2017 and fixed the deal himself.
“Interrogation has revealed that Dev and Ajit were to arrange the drugs and pack them inside the woks. Chauhan was to arrange the transport through courier,” Khak added.
Prasanta Patnaik