Amritsar/Chandigarh, July 1 -- In a joint operation with the Border Security Force (BSF) and Rajasthan cops, a Punjab Police team busted an international drug cartel and seized over 60-kg heroin near Pakistan border in Barmer, officials said on Monday. This is the second biggest drug seizure made by Punjab Police this year. On May 16, Tarn Taran police had recovered 85kg of heroin after busting a narco-smuggling module controlled by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The operation carried out by Amritsar police commissionerate led to the arrest of at least nine persons, including smugglers, traffickers and hawala operators from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir, said director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav. The DGP said preliminary investigations have revealed that the drug cartel was being operated by Pakistan-based smuggler Tanveer Shah and Canada-based smuggler Joban Kaler with the help of local kingpin Gursahib Singh, who was already lodged in Goindwal Sahib Jail but continued to run the network from inside the jail using a mobile phone. His phone was recovered with the help of jail authorities and his production warrant was obtained for deeper probe into Canada-Pakistan linkages, he said. Those arrested were identified as Gagandeep Singh alias Gagan (23), Jashanpreet Singh alias Jashan (20), Gursahib Singh (25), Kulwinder Singh, all from Amritsar, Rajeev Panjgotra alias Rajveer (29), Somnath (62), Prashotam Singh alias Kala, Rajinder Kaur, 42, all J&K residents, and a hawala operator. "A case FIR No. 118 dated 17/06/2025 under sections 21-B, 21-C, 27-B and 29 of NDPS Act has been registered at the Chheharta police station," police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told reporters in Amritsar. Bhullar said the operation began after Gursahib Singh was arrested last month with 1 kg heroin from Chheharta. Despite being in jail, Gursahib operated a smuggling network via his nephew Jashanpreet Singh and associate Gagandeep Singh, who were arrested with 102 gm heroin. Their interrogation led to recovery of 60- kg heroin consignment in Barmer, he added. Bhullar said during investigation, the hawala network used for routing drug money was also unearthed with the arrest of an operator. Bhullar said the probe also revealed that drugs were being smuggled from across the Indo-Pak border and routed through Rajasthan to Punjab, with further local distribution channels. Further working on backward linkages five more accused associated with Tanveer Shah of Pakistan were also identified and raids are being conducted to nab them, he said. In February, 30kg of heroin was recovered by Amritsar rural police after a smuggler was arrested. In October 2024, police recovered 105kg of heroin in Amritsar by busting a cross-border smuggling ring after arresting two accomplices of a Turkeybased drug smuggler, Navpreet Singh, alias Nav Bhullar....