In war against drug menace, Punjab Police crackdown traces major hawala conduits in Turkey, UAE

Indian Express

3 days ago

Investigations by Punjab Police into the hawala network, which funds and fuels the drugs smuggling trade in the state, has revealed that much of the illegal cash is routed through Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia, Canada, and West Asia.
The Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), which has been spearheading the 'Yudh Nashyean Virudh' (war on drugs) campaign in the state has been investigating the cross border linkages of the hawala transactions and has found that the maximum transactions are routed through UAE and West Asia and that money exchangers based in India are the prime movers of this illicit cash.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that the crackdown on hawala network is one of the most important aspects of the war on drugs.
'We have arrested 60 people till now in connection with hawala networks linked to drugs and have recovered more than Rs 12 crore. The investigations by ANTF have found that people from different states and professions are involved in it. Linkages have been found in Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka apart from Punjab,' said Yadav.
The DGP said that it is essential to hit at the financial aspect of the drugs trade so as to make it unprofitable for anyone to venture into drugs smuggling. 'The seizure and forfeiture of property being done by the Punjab Police under the relevant provisions of the NDPS Act are also a step towards this aim. All these so called gains from the drugs trade have to be traced and connected to the big fish,' said the DGP.
A senior official from ANTF said that the most commonly used conduits are currency exchanges but they have also found the involvement of some mobile repair store owners in this illegal activity. 'The international links reach Dubai, Malaysia, Canada, Pakistan and Turkey. There are digital and coded transactions over phones and bank account layering is done to obscure proceeds from heroin sales,' the official said.
Recovery of Rs 4.22 crore hawala money along with 423 grams heroin, 372g gold, four cars, and motorcycles. Four inter-state hawala operators were arrested. In this case backward linkages in recovery of heroine in Amritsar led to unearthing of hawala network being run by forex agents Ashok Kumar and his brothers in Phagwara, Kapurthala. Drug was being smuggled from Pakistan by one Shahbaz, a resident of Pakistan's Narowal district, through Gurbhej Singh alias Bheja who was lodged in Amritsar Jail. The hawala money was being routed through through one gym operator Harmanjit alias Harry to the forex operator Ashok Kumar who would further launder it to Dubai.
In this case there was a recovery of 7kg opium along with Rs.23 lakh of drug money. Total seven people were arrested. Here, one Iqbal was the mastermind who was collecting the hawala money on the instructions of foreign based criminal Joban Kaler. Here the money was being deposited to the forex operator Ashok Kumar of Phagwara, Kapurthala.
An international narco-hawala link to a Turkey-based smuggler Navpreet Bhullar was unearthed. Six people were arrested with 1kg heroine and Rs 84.02 lakh hawala money while Rs 22 lakh has been frozen in bank accounts. Turkey based Navpreet Bhullar is the mastermind of this case with Gurdeep Saab being his on ground worker in Amritsar.
In this case an interstate drug network was busted with the recovery of 60kg heroin from Barmer in Rajasthan. Eleven people were arrested out of which four are from Jammu and Kashmir, two from Rajasthan, one from Haryana and four from Punjab. During the interrogation, it came to fore that Manish Daga from Jodhpur and Ashok Punjabi from Jodhpur were handling the hawala operations within India. They were acting in close coordination with Dharmendra (resident of Ajmer), who is currently residing in Dubai. Dharmendra, in turn, is directly in touch with Tanveer Shah, a Pakistan-based smuggler believed to be the mastermind behind the cross-border drug operations.
Five people have been arrested in this case. In the course of investigations significant revelations regarding hawala operations have emerged during the interrogation of the main accused Jagjit Singh, resident of Tilak Nagar, Delhi, from whom Rs .6.9 Lakh has been recovered. Originally from Afghanistan, Jagjit returned to India in 2014 and had since been operating as a key hawala conduit for cross-border drug proceeds. He is working on the instructions of one Pakistan based smuggler namely Pathan.