Gurugram police busts international opium smuggling gang, arrests Punjab-based handler

Gurugram, Dec 18 (PTI) Gurugram police claimed to have busted an international drug trafficking gang that smuggled opium to the United States through courier services and arrested a Punjab-based member of the gang, officials said on Thursday.

According to police, the gang used to import drugs from Pakistan through drones and sent them abroad by hiding them in food boxes through courier services. In return for sending each parcel, the arrested accused would get Rs 2 to Rs 5 lakh.

The arrested accused, Lakhbir Singh (23), a school dropout from Kot Data village in Tarn Taran district, was carrying a reward of Rs 5,000. Police said suspicious transactions amounting to Rs 66 lakh were detected in his bank account within a year.

His details have been shared with the Punjab police’s Anti-Narcotics Department and the Intelligence Bureau, officials said.

According to police, on May 25, 2023, the Haryana State Narcotics Control Board received information from a courier firm in Udyog Vihar about a suspicious international parcel. On inspection, two packets of opium weighing 842 grams were found concealed inside jars of chawanprash.

The parcel, which also contained clothes and shoes, was sent by Singh and was addressed to a recipient in California, US, they said.

The seized opium valued at Rs 4.5 lakh in India, was expected to fetch nearly five times that amount overseas, police added. An FIR was registered in the matter at the Udyog Vihar police station.

Singh had been absconding since the seizure and was declared a procalimed offender by a court in February 2025. A reward of Rs 5000 was announced on his arrest by the Haryana Director General of Police (DGP).

A crime unit team arrested the accused from Punjab on Tuesday. He was produced before the city court and remanded to three days’ police custody, officials said.

“During interrogation, the accused revealed that he had been associated with the organised international drug trafficking gang since 2022. The gang members used to import illegal drugs into India from Pakistan,” a Gugram police spokesperson said.

He confessed that narcotics were packed between boxes of food items like Chyawanprash, Laddoo, etc, and the parcels were sent to fake addresses of people, who had gone abroad (USA) through the donkey route, the spokesperson added.

“Parcels from Punjab were sent through the Desk to Desk Courier and Cargo company, which then reached abroad via DHL Express. Gang members abroad sold these drugs at high prices and made huge profits. We are questioning him and also are trying to nab other members of the gang," he said. PTI COR OZ OZ