In crackdown on jail-based drug syndicates, NCB relocated several high-profile traffickers
NEW DELHI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has taken strict action against high-profile drug traffickers operating from within prisons. Under the Preventive Detention provisions of the PITNDPS Act, 1988, several notorious criminals have been relocated to high-security jails to dismantle their networks and prevent them from orchestrating illegal activities from behind bars, officials said on Sunday.
One of the landmark steps taken by the NCB has been the shifting of gangster and drug peddler Jagdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, from Bathinda (Punjab) to Central Jail, Silchar (Assam) on Sunday, they said.
Bhagwanpuria hails from Gurdaspur, Punjab, and has 128 criminal cases against him, including high-profile murders, extortion, smuggling of arms, and 12 NDPS Act cases.
He is also an accused in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case. Intelligence inputs verified that, even while being lodged in Punjab’s high-security prisons, he continued to orchestrate drug trafficking operations via mobile phones, with close connections to international networks in Canada, the USA, and Pakistan.
His shift to Assam is considered a significant move in dismantling the network that was used to smuggle heroin, opium, psychotropic substances, and illegal weapons.
Apart from Bhagwanpuria, the NCB has shifted a number of other top narcotic smugglers to remote jails to sever their influence and operational control.
Akshay Chhabra and Jaspal Goldy, who kept running the narcotic smuggling business despite being in prison, have been shifted from Punjab to Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam after more NDPS Act cases were lodged against them.
Balwinder Singh, aka Billa Havellian, a prolific offender active since 1992, with his cross-border smuggling nexus to Pakistan, was also arrested under PITNDPS and shifted to Dibrugarh Central Jail on August 13, 2024.
Another extensive raid was carried out on the syndicate of Jahanara Begum, with members Insan Laskar, Manuyara Bibi Seikh, and Arjun Manna. The gang were time and again discovered engaged in smuggling heroin and ganja, and as per a preventive detention order made on September 5, 2024, they were relocated from West Bengal to Jayprakash Narayan Central Jail in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.
The recent actions by the NCB come in the wake of a comprehensive intelligence review and long-running probes that uncovered how various top-level drug culprits were utilising prisons as headquarters to run smuggling rings.
These drug criminals have used jail facilities for long, relying on loopholes in communications to coordinate India’s and global trafficking operations. By relocating them to remote, high-security prisons, officials want to cut off their contacts, dismantle their networks, and save prison campuses from being used as playgrounds by organised crime syndicates.
The agency’s concerted effort has already resulted in the conviction of 29 drug traffickers in 12 separate cases throughout India after comprehensive and foolproof probes. The government is still committed to ensuring that drug cartels are broken up, supply chains are cut off, and criminals are brought to justice.
With the ultimate objective of a drug-free India by 2047, the NCB appeals to citizens to join hands in the battle against drug trafficking by providing any information pertaining to the sale of narcotics. Individuals can provide suitable information by dialling the MANAS National Narcotics Helpline at 1933.
