The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted an Afghan gang allegedly involved in supplying drugs to Punjab and arrested a man after recovering 7 kg heroin here, officials said on Monday.
The NCB's Delhi zonal unit got a tip-off that an Afghan national, staying in the capital's Hauz Rani area, will supervise the delivery of drugs which was being manufactured in his Afghanistan-based facilities.
His identity was not revealed by the authorities, who said he has set up an elaborate syndicate comprising Indians and West Africans.
They said he was to handover a consignment of drugs to a person from Punjab.
The Afghan's house was raided and 7 kg heroin was recovered, officials said, adding that a person who hailed from Punjab has been arrested.
During interrogation, he revealed information about his "handler" based in Jalandhar.
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The NCB is probing if the kingpin is linked to the recent seizure of 330 kg heroin made by the Delhi Police over the last few days.
On Friday, about 130 kg heroin was seized from a container in Navi Mumbai following which two men, including an Afghan national, were arrested.
It was the third major recovery of the contraband from an Afghanistan-based syndicate in one week. Total 330 kg heroin worth around Rs 1,320 crore has been seized by the Delhi police so far.
The NCB last month deployed a special team of sleuths in Punjab to undertake "coordinated" action against the illegal narcotics trade.
The NCB, a federal agency to check drug abuse in the country, has for the first time posted a team of about 9-10 personnel that will be headed by a Deputy Director General (DDG)-rank officer, followed by a zonal director, two deputy directors, superintendents and intelligence officers, who will camp in Amritsar and operate from there for the next three months at least.
As per the latest figures, Punjab accounted for the maximum seizure of opium in the country in 2017 at over 505 kg, while it was second in the category of seizure of heroin at 406 kg after Gujarat's 1,017 kg during the same year.
Lakhs of units of pharma-based injections and tablets, abused as drugs, were also seized in the state during the same period, along with over 41,000 kg of poppy husk, which is processed to make opiates and alkaloids.