Jammu, Sep 21: A border resident was arrested along with 3.5 kg of heroin worth about Rs 7 crores in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior officer of Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) said here on Thursday.
Zaheer Ahmad, a resident of north Kashmir’s Keran sector of Kupwara district, was arrested on specific information from Gangbug area of Srinagar, Senior Superintendent of Police (ANTF) Raj Kumar told reporters here.
“The arrest of the narcotic smuggler and seizure of commercial quantities of heroin from his possession is a big success for the ANTF,” the officer said, adding an FIR was registered and further investigation to expose the backward and forward links of the arrested smuggler is going on.
He said heroin is mostly smuggled from across the border and “we are looking into details how the consignment reached this side – whether it was smuggled or airdropped through a drone.” Some more arrests are expected in the case as the investigation progresses, he said, adding that it is a matter of investigation whether the case is linked to narco-terrorism.
Kumar said this year ANTF registered 15 FIRs, mostly related to the seizure of commercial quantities of narcotics from different parts of the Union Territory and arrests of the accused were even made from outside J-K, including Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi.
“The assets/properties raised by the smugglers are being identified and confiscated. Several bank accounts were also frozen,” he said, adding that the same process will be followed in this case.
He appealed to the general public to come forward and cooperate with law enforcing agencies in identifying and capturing the drug smugglers to safeguard the younger generation.
“Narcotics is a major threat to our society and we need to join hands to end this menace,” the SSP said.
