Among all medicine recovered by Mohali police up to now this 12 months, Opium has emerged because the best choice of drug peddlers.

As many as 31 kg of opium has been recovered since January 1, adopted by 8 kg heroin.

Valued at 100 per gm, in comparison with the round 4,000 per gm price ticket of heroin, opium is the drug-peddlers’ favourite, due to the excessive demand by addicts and simple availability within the area, stated investigators.

Through their crackdown on drug commerce, police have arrested 340 peddlers this 12 months, in comparison with 205 in 2021. A complete of 235 circumstances have been registered since January 1, up from 136 final 12 months.

In the newest restoration, police on Sunday had caught three drug peddlers who have been attempting to smuggle in 10 kg opium into Mohali in an ambulance, with one among them posing as a affected person. The different males have been posing as the driving force and the attendant.

The trio later confessed to smuggling the drug at the very least 12 instances prior to now from Uttar Pradesh.

According to investigators, via interrogation of the peddlers, they’d discovered that opium was primarily smuggled from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, whereas heroin was sourced from Delhi and border areas of Punjab. The nationwide capital can be the first supply of cocaine smuggling, whereas intoxicant capsules are equipped from Uttar Pradesh.

60% drug peddlers caught whereas getting into Mohali district

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vivek Sheel Soni stated round 60% of the drug smugglers caught this 12 months have been arrested whereas getting into Mohali from Lalru aspect. “Sometimes we get prior information that leads to arrests, while on other occasions, checking of vehicles leads to recoveries. As many as 40% of the smugglers are staying as paying guests and are from neighboring districts and states. All drug smugglers are aged between 20 and 40 and most of them are school or college dropouts,” he said.

The SSP said usually when commercial quantities were recovered, it was found that the district was used as transit, while in the case of recovery of small quantities, the drug peddlers were often suppliers for college and university students in the district and region.

“As part of the Punjab government’s anti-drug drive, various teams were constituted by the Mohali police to rein in drug peddlers and smugglers. With the arrest of 340 accused, we have been able to break the chain to some extent,” he stated.