Over 22,000 narcotic smugglers have been arrested so far under a state-level campaign against drugs, officials said on Friday. Under the ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ (war against drugs) campaign, Punjab Police on Thursday arrested 113 drug smugglers and recovered 1.5 kg heroin, 5 kg opium, and 31,237 intoxicant pills from their possession.
With this, the number of total drug smugglers arrested in 138 days of the campaign has reached 22,377.
Special DGP (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla stated that over 180 police teams, comprising more than 1,300 police personnel, under the supervision of 93 gazetted officers, conducted raids at as many as 433 locations across the state on Thursday.
The operation led to the registration of 81 FIRs across the state, Shukla said, adding police teams also checked as many as 483 suspicious persons in the exercise.
The state government has also constituted a five-member cabinet subcommittee led by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema to monitor the war against drugs.