MUMBAI: As zonal director of the Narcotic Control Bureau's (NCB) Chandigarh office, arrested IPS officer, Saji Mohan, was in the hotbed of the
drug trade. The border districts of Punjab are the favoured crossing points for drug traffickers carrying heroin from Afghanistan through Pakistan.

In 2006, the NCB had seized 125kg of heroin on the 564 km-long Pakistan border in Punjab, while the Border Security Force (BSF) confiscated 35kg of contraband that year. Experts estimate that this haul amounts to barely one-tenth of the contraband that is actually smuggled in through the border.

The huge amounts get past the Indo-Pak border undetected via conduits (tunnels), and each package is labelled with tags such as `Aeroplane', `Abdi Khel', `555', `7777', etc. Only last month, the BSF discovered a tunnel on the border that was being used to bring in heroin from Pakistan. The contraband is then picked up by Indian smugglers and transported by road to cities like Amritsar, Ferozepur, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana and Chandigarh. It is then loaded onto trains bound for Mumbai, hidden among ordinary consignments of dry fruits, machinery, woollens, etc.

Mumbai remains the favourite transit port for drug cartels for historic reasons. Dawood and Chhota Rajan gangs are well established here; their drug carriers are well-trained and most importantly, Mumbai enjoys good global connectivity by both air and sea routes.

Intelligence officials say that over the years, reduction in troop presence on the Punjab border due to the end of militancy in the region has also made it easier for drug traffickers. Earlier, BSF personnel stood guard at a distance of every 100m, but now, they are spread thin: distance between two guards is over 300m. From Mumbai, the heroin is smuggled into Europe through human carriers.

The few who are caught often reveal that they had been smuggling contraband for years. For instance, Chandan Nair, a 71-year-old, who was convicted to 10 years in jail last week for trying to smuggle three kilos of heroin into Europe, said that he had been making regular trips since 2002. In 2008, Mumbai also saw the rare instance of a Kashmiri drug dealer, Ghulam Malik, being sentenced to death because he was convicted the second time round for dealing in drugs-a capital offence under the law.

ref: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Drug_route_From_Punjab_to_Mumbai/articleshow/4039033.cms