Drug racketeer wanted by Gujarat ATS held in Italy

AHMEDABAD: Simranjit Singh Sandhu, of Amritsar, allegedly one of the biggest drug mafiosi of the country, has been detained in Italy, based on the red-corner notice (RCN) issued at the behest of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).

Sandhu was wanted in the drug trafficking case in which 300kg of heroin, worth Rs 1,500 crore, was allegedly smuggled from Pakistan to the Mandvi coast of Gujarat.
Smuggling of such huge quantity of heroin was unearthed when five kilos of that consignment was seized by Gujarat ATS in Jam Salaya.
The heroin was found in possession of Rafiq Sumra and Abdul Aziz Baghad, in August 2018. “Based on their interrogation, three others, namely Manjur Ahmed Mir and Nazir Thakkar of Kashmir, who were in touch with Sumra and Baghad, and one Shahid Sumra, were arrested by the Gujarat ATS. It is suspected that money from sale of the heroin was part of a larger narco-terrorism racket for funding terror attacks in India,” a senior ATS official said.
Investigators said the part of the syndicate that sent heroin consignment from Pakistan is suspected to be associated with the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed. “Once Sandhu is extradited to India, the hawala links through which money was transferred will become clear,” an investigator said.
ATS officials said it was unearthed that the 5kg of heroin seized in Salaya was part of a 300kg consignment that had been smuggled into India earlier, and parts of which were sent to Punjab and other north Indian states camouflaged as cumin stocks in trucks.
Gujarat ATS officials said they have initiated the procedure to get Sandhu back to India through the ministry of home affairs and the ministry of external affairs.