Woman kingpin among four held with 5.2kg heroin
Amritsar: Commissionerate Police has busted a cross-border drug cartel with the arrest of a woman kingpin identified as Mandeep Kaur (27) of village Ibban Kalan in Amritsar and her three operatives after recovering 5.2 kg heroin from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Sunday.
The other arrested operatives have been identified as Alam Arora (23) and Manmeet alias Golu (21), both residents of Janta Colony in Chheharta, Amritsar; and 18-years-old boy (name withheld) of Tarn Taran.
DGP said that preliminary investigations have revealed that accused Mandeep Kaur was in a relationship with a person, who introduced her to Pakistan-based smugglers. Accused Mandeep’s ancestral house is located in border village Khalra in Tarn Taran, which is approximately 2 kilometres from the fencing of the Indo-Pak border, he said.
The DGP said that the probe has also uncovered evidence that the accused Mandeep, occasionally don a police uniform to impersonate a police officer to carry out nefarious activities. Further investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages in this case, he added.
Sharing operation details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that following reliable inputs about woman drug smuggler running a drug cartel, police teams under the supervision of DCP investigation Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu, ADCP Investigation Navjot Singh, and ACP North Kamaljit Singh, led by Incharge CIA-1 Inspector Amolakdeep Singh along with police party apprehended the Mandeep Kaur and her two operatives Alam and Manmeet from the area of Chheharta in Amritsar. Later, on the revelations of accused Mandeep Kaur about the involvement of another individual, police teams have also arrested him from the same area, he said.
The CP said that further investigations are ongoing and more arrests and recoveries are likely in coming days.
A case FIR No. 53 dated March 20, 2025, has been registered under sections 21(C), 21(B), and 29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Chheharta in Amritsar.
