Punjab Police nabs int'l drug smuggler wanted in 487 kg cocaine smuggling case in Germany

Chandigarh: The Punjab Police in a joint operation with central agencies have apprehended an international drug smuggler Simranjot Singh Sandhu (30), a kingpin in connection with 487 kg cocaine smuggling case of 2020 in Germany, said the Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Saturday.

The development came after investigations carried out by the Moga police into the arrest of local drug smugglers, Beant Singh and Sukhdeep Singh, who were arrested with one kg of heroin on June 16.

As per the statements of the accused duo, the Moga police had nominated Mandeep Singh, currently based in the US, and Simranjot Singh, who was allegedly searching for purchasers for heroin in Punjab on directions of the former.

DGP Yadav said the accused Sandhu is a key lynchpin of an international drug cartel and was wanted in Germany for drug offences.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused played a major role in smuggling drugs in India and other European countries, he added.

Inspector General of Police (Headquarters), Sukhchain Singh Gill, accompanied by DIG (Faridkot Range) Ashwani Kapur and SSP (Moga) Ankur Gupta, while sharing more details with the media, said during the follow-up investigations into the one kg heroin recovery case, the police have arrested Sandhu, a native of Batala.

He said Simranjot, who went to Germany in 2002, was working as a taxi driver and from March to June 2020, the accused had stored and transported at least 487 kg cocaine, 66 kg marijuana and 10 kg hashish being supplied from Brazil and other South American countries and arrived at the port of Hamburg in Germany.

The accused used to communicate on an encrypted mobile app 'Encrochat' through which a drug network was unearthed by the German Police, he added.

Later, the accused was convicted for eight years and six months under Section 29 of the Narcotic Drugs Act by a German court on February 28, 2022, but without completing the jail sentence he fled away to Dubai in July 2023 and then came to India in September 2023.

The IGP said that for 11 months Simranjot had been staying at various places in India, including Amritsar, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Moga, to prevent arrest.

Detailed questioning of the accused is being done to verify his activities in India, he added.