32 arrests in 9 months,including award-winning sportsmen,decorated policemen and politicians; seizures of raw materials and prepared drugs for clients abroad,together worth Rs 1,000 crore. In the multi-crore international smuggling racket of synthetic drugs,Punjab has emerged a new hub. Thirty-two persons with links to the state have been arrested over the past nine months,and 935 kg precursor chemicals (ephedrine and pseudoephedrine) and another 13 kg ready-to-use rave party drugs,amounting to around Rs 1,000 crore,seized. Investigators believe prepared drugs worth at least Rs 600 crore have found their way out of the state to Canada,the UK and the Netherlands since 2009. Those arrested include decorated sportspersons,policemen,NRIs,successful businessmen,senior politicians and former Punjab terrorists,apparently drawn in by the attractive margins. The precursor chemicals used to manufacture amphetamine-type stimulants,including methamphetamine or Ice,are available at Rs 15 lakh a kg in the uncontrolled drug market in India. A few simple chemical processes later,these can be sold in Canada and the US at over Rs 5 crore a kg (the highest demand is from Southeast Asia and North America). Drug abuse too is rampant in Punjab. It has always ranked among the top five centres in India for trade in opium and opium-based drugs. For the past five years,Punjab has shown the highest recovery of heroin in the country. It topped the country in the recovery of opium too until last year,when Maharashtra went on top. Seizures of ATS were being made largely from Imphal until Punjab emerged on the map.Two synthetic drug modules busted in Punjab were controlled by men who had lived or were living abroad. Raja Kandola,who was arrested in 2012 by the Jalandhar police and later by the Delhi police,had lived in the US for several years. His unit,which was manufacturing Ice,was being run from his farmhouse in Samrala,Ludhiana. And Anoop Singh Kahlon,whose arrest in March this year led to the busting of the network,is a former Punjab cop based in Canada. Bhola and Kahlon Kahlons links in Canada helped him smuggle the goods, says Patiala SSP Hardayal Singh Mann,who is credited with the busting of the network. He was SSP in Fatehgarh Sahib when Kahlon was arrested and SSP in Patiala when Jagdish Bhola was caught. Kahlon reportedly told police that Bhola,a dismissed Punjab cop and a former Arjuna Award winner in wrestling,was the kingpin of the network and that Ram Singh,sparring partner for Olympic boxer Vijender Singh,was among his clients. While a lot of attention focused on Vijender following Kahlons claims,Mann says that for police the boxer and Ram Singh were small fry. It was Bhola we wanted the most. His house in Mohali was raided but he had vanished. Twenty-five more people were arrested on the basis of what Kahlon said,including Bhola on November 12 from Haryana with four accomplices. Bhola is currently wanted in six cases registered under the NDPS Act. Bhola is the most vital link,in fact the fountainhead. His interrogation gives us a fair idea how the international network operated. He was into everything he was the manufacturer,was the distributor,and controlled peddling in Canada and the UK. He also bought manufactured Ice and smuggled it through couriers, says Ananya Gautam,DIG,counterintelligence. Those arrested include two Akali Dal politicians-cum-businessmen from Amritsar. One of them,Jagjit Singh Chahal,is a flamboyant hotelier who owns three pharmaceutical companies. According to Mann,he diverted ephedrine meant for medicines to the manufacture of Ice. Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini admitted that while considerable efforts have been made,more is required to be done. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal,who also holds the home portfolio,promised Punjab will show zero tolerance towards those dealing in drugs. Drugs are silently killing my state and I will not allow this to happen. Politicians,cops,anyone and everyone who is involved,will be booked and dealt with strictly. If Akalis are involved,they will have to face the music. The other networks Developing the leads that the Punjab police got from the members of the Bhola chain,the Patiala police cracked two other multi-crore international synthetic drug rackets. On December 5 the police arrested Delhi-based multi-millionaire Dev Behl with his driver and an accomplice. Behl was allegedly obtaining raw materials,converting them into Ice and supplying them to international markets including Canada for the past three years. Behl had done business worth Rs 2,000 crore in drugs,say the police. During his interrogation the police claim to have discovered he had been an associate of Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees in gold smuggling. On December 12,working on information from Dev Behls questioning,the police arrested another five persons,including a Myanmar national,from Delhi and Himachal Pradesh and cracked another Delhi-based chain of Ice suppliers. The chain revealed a new trafficking route being used for pumping synthetic drugs into North America through Myanmar and China utilising Golden Triangle-based links. The five arrested were a Delhi socialite,Varinder Singh alias Raja; Hrang Tin Khara alias Adam Zanniat alias Robert; Delhi-based businessmen-Rajesh Kumar Bansal and Ajay Jain,and Mainga,manager of a factory in Himachal Pradesh. How they work Raw materials such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are supplied to pharmaceutical companies for the manufacture of a range of medicines through a controlled supply chain. With the alleged connivance of factory owners,these were pilfered or diverted. The manufacture of Ice from ephedrine involves just a few simple chemical reactions under high temperatures. Those involved in Bholas network were allegedly sourcing precursor chemicals from pharmaceutical companies in Baddi,Meerut,Faridabad,Haridwar and Damtal. Once manufactured,Ice was smuggled out through couriers. Those with expertise in converting ephedrine into Ice and making it difficult for detection at airports were hired from as far away as Vietnam and China. Officials say Bhola developed contacts with drug peddlers in Europe and North America while touring these countries to participate in sports events. Drugs were transported abroad primarily by air cargo and also through human couriers. They would be hidden in the heels of footwear,in books,false cavities in containers,womens suits,condiments,food product boxes and even picture frames of religious personalities, says Mann. IG,counterintelligence,Gaurav Yadav says Bhola had at least 40 NRIs acting as couriers,operating under unimpeachable cover. They visited Punjab regularly,participated in local activities,sponsored rural festivals and organised kabaddi tournaments. The kabaddi and pehalwani links are important to this network, Yadav says. The Punjab police have shared information on the NRIs with Interpol. We have unconfirmed reports that at least one arrest has been made (in Canada), says the IG. So far,police have not found any Indian recipients of the drugs in Bholas network,all identified recipients being based in Canada,the UK and Holland. According to police records,UK national Kulwant Singh,who was arrested along with Kahlon,was Bholas main supply link to Canada,the UK and the Netherlands. Kulwants father-in-law,Nirankar Singh Dhillon,who has businesses in car repair and home renovation and is settled in Ontario,was allegedly one of the recipients of Ice in Canada. Kulwant,police believe,handled the drug himself in the UK but has named another recipient there,Lateef alias Lucky,a person of Pakistani origin based in Birmingham. Another six persons allegedly received Ice from this network in the UK. In the Netherlands,Kulwant is said to have three contacts,known as Bob,Sam and Gary. Police records say the recipients in Canada included Dara Singh Mathoda,a Vancouver-based philanthropist running the Azad Kabaddi Club there and who visited Punjab regularly; Harbans Sidhu in Toronto; Sarabjit Singh alias Nick in Vancouver; Pradeep Singh Dhaliwal also in Vancouver; Amarjit Singh in Vancouver and Pramod Sharma alias Tony in Ontario. Mathoda has denied the allegations in interviews to the local media in Canada. WHOs WHO Probed in bhola network Jagdish Bhola Arrested Bhola was recruited by the Punjab Police in 1993 and made an inspector following his achievements in wrestling. He was given the Arjuna Award in 1997,after winning almost all top wrestling titles in India Rustum-e-Hind,Bharat Kesari,Bharatmal Samrat,Vishav Khalsa Kesri and Hind Kesari. He acted in three Punjabi films. Now in his early 40s,the DSP-turned-alleegd druglord wanted to invest in Bollywood and the hotel business. He was first booked for smuggling contraband in 2001 and declared a proclaimed offender. Later,his involvement in the drug racket led to his dismissal. He was by then a DSP. He was also stripped of his Arjuna Award and other titles. Bhola is said to have learnt to make Ice,a process that needs temperatures over 200°C. An explosion went off in his house once; he said it was a cooker blast. In Delhi,he allegedly ran a fake US visa racket. Jagjit Chahal Arrested An Amritsar-based businessman,Chahal ran a tyre business and also operated three factories that used ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. He allegedly diverted these to Bhola. Chahal was known for flaunting a fleet of over a dozen luxury vehicles, all with fancy registration numbers in sets of 0001. Manjinder Aulakh @ Bittu Aulakh Arrested A general secretary of the Akali Dal,he sought the MLA ticket from Lopoke in 2012 and was the campaign-in-charge of the sitting MLA from Ajnala,Amritsar. He allegedly ran an independent supply chain of precursor chemicals for Bhola. A former sarpanch of Vairokae,he owns Sanjog Hotel in Amritsar. Anup Singh Kahlon Arrested A shot put champion,he joined Punjab Police in 1993 and later migrated to Canada. He worked as a sweeper and truck driver and later helped people shift homes before starting his own chain of departmental stores,Express News,in Burnaby and North Vancouver. After he was arrested in March,he reportedly tried to kill himself. Vijender Singh Not charged The Olympic boxers name came up in the probe when an SUV registered in his wifes name was found near Anup Kahlons house. Vijender,a DSP with Haryana police,was questioned but his blood and urine samples came out clean,according to NADA. The Punjab police wanted to test his hair and nail samples too but a court denied them permission. He was not named in the chargesheet. The car,Vijender said,was being used by his sparring partner,Ram Singh. Ram Singh On bail Ram Singh,Vijenders sparring partner,declared on national television that he and Vijemder had tried small quantities of drugs for funs sake. Ram Singh was later discovered to have close contacts with Kahlon. Police said Ram Singh brought Kahlon in touch with Vijender,too. Sarabjit Singh Proclaimed offender The sub-inspector is alleged to have helped Bhola when he fled Mohali,and to have sheltered him at home. Kulbir Singh Assandh Arrested A former Bhindrawale Tiger Force member,said to be a link between Bholas network and Raja Kandolas. Until his arrest,he was wanted in Delhi,Kartarpur and Hoshiarpur. Kandola & the Others Raja Kandola Arrested Kandola was arrested by Delhi Police in August last year in a Rs-278-crore drug haul case. The drug racket had been busted by the Punjab Police in June 2012,but Kandola then escaped. Police had recovered chemicals used in synthesising drugs from his associates. They had also raided Kandolas farmhouse near Samrala,where he allegedly manufactured the drugs. Dev Behl Arrested He is now in his 50s. From 1983 to 1988,he was allegedly running an international gold smuggling syndicate along with Anees Ibrahim,and is said to have maintained social contact with Dawood Ibrahim even after their partnership broke up in 1988. The erstwhile owner of a pharmaceutical company,Behl has a large house in Delhi spread over one acre and had deployed private security for his protection. He has a 20-room hotel (Royal Farm) and a wedding palace in Himachal Pradesh,and an 8-acre wedding palace (also named Royal Farm) on Karnal Road,Delhi. Robert and Raja Arrested Robert was allegedly the main supplier of precursor chemicals to the factories based on the Myanmar-China border that would manufacture Ice. Rajas family,including his father,are based in Myanmar and his wife is a US national. Raja was allegedly one of the main recipients of consignments of precursor chemicals from Dev Behl. Raja,who is in his mid-thirties,had a weakness for branded clothes,frequently visited discos and had extensively travelled abroad. According to the police,he was a master at disguise. He had bases in Mizoram,New Delhi and Myanmar.
