Six fish carrying capsules had 1.5kg of heroin hidden

JALANDHAR: The counter intelligence wing of Punjab Police here has arrested a Ugandan woman for smuggling heroin concealed in a fish after putting the drug in a special capsule. It has also been revealed that kingpin of the racket is a foreign national lodged in Nabha jail in a drugs related case.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Jalandhar Zone IG Arpit Shukla said a local team of Counter Intelligence (CI) on Sunday laid a trap on the Jagraon-Moga national highway in collaboration with the Jagraon police and arrested Rogget Namotabi, whoy hails from Uganda and is currently living in Uttam Nagar, Delhi. He said that it came to light that dead fish were being used to smuggle drugs concealed in a special capsule. Six capsules and 1.5kg of heroin were seized in the operation.

“On questioning, Namotabi revealed that she had brought the contraband from Delhi and was to deliver it to drug peddler Gurjant Jand of Daulewala village, near Moga. She also disclosed that kingpin of this drug racket is also a foreign national, Micheal, originally hailing from Nigeria, who is lodged in Nabha jail under NDPS Act and is operating from there,” said Shukla.

He said that Michael came in touch with another smuggler Raja Singh, who was also lodged in Nabha jail after his arrest in a case of recovery of 115 bags of poppy husk by CI, Jalandhar, near Sirhind, sometime back and they conspired to smuggle heroin instead of poppy husk. It was decided that Michael would arrange the contraband and Raju would search for buyers and the latter then contacted Gurjant Jand in this regard, the IG said.

According to their plan, Manpreet, another Delhi-based woman accomplice of Michael, arranged the contraband from Delhi, which was then sent to Rogget, who was supposed to deliver it to Jand. However, the police intercepted the consignment and stumbled upon the unconventional method of concealing drugs. Shukla said the two masterminds of the case, Micheal and Raja, would also be taken on production warrant in the coming days to find out if more persons were involved in the drug network while efforts were already on to nab Manpreet and Jand.

