Heroin smuggling across Punjab border rising

Smuggling of heroin along the international India-Pakistan fenced border in Punjab has almost tripled over the last year, if seizures made by the BSF are an indication.

Against 68 kg of heroin seized from the border belt in 2011, the force has already seized 204 kg of heroin in less than eight months this year, a senior BSF official disclosed. The haul this year is estimated at nearly Rs 1,000 crore.

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In the latest seizure last week in the Ferozepur sector of Punjab, the BSF recovered seven packets containing seven kg of heroin.u00a0BSF officials, alarmed by the figures, attribute the bigger haul to greater vigil. In 2008 the BSF seized 100 kg, the next year the seizure had gone up to 120 kg and in 2010 the figure was 115 kg before dipping to 68 kg in 2011.

Punjab shares a 553-km-long barbed wire fenced international border with Pakistan. "Smugglers use various modes to get the drugs across the international border. In recent times, they have been hiding packets of heroin in fields across the fence, throwing them across the fence or hiding them in cement bags coming on the goods' train," a BSF official said. u00a0