Top Indian smuggling cartels linked with Colombian drug kingpins are being hotly pursued by the Narcotics Control Bureau NCB following specific inputs of international agencies including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP. "Crime syndicates run by Indian expatriates in Canada are the major go-betweens between foreign drug kingpins and Indian smugglers. After the recent seizure of 20 kg of cocaine in India, the NCB is working on important leads involving a few big time operators in Punjab and other states, and we hope to unmask them soon," NCB Director Rakesh Asthana, said.

Several Indo-Canadian organised crime groups linked with Colombian and Mexican drug mafia, active in the state of British Columbia are pushing consignments to Asia, including India. Many of these gangsters of Indian origin, involved in drug trafficking, hail from Punjab On a tip off from Australian Federal Police, top sleuths of NCB had busted one of the biggest ever drug cartels in India, linked with Canadian and Colombian drug lords, in December last year.