The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has secured a court order for the attachment of a property belonging to Varinder Singh Chahal, who is accused of being part of a narco-terror network of international drugs smugglers and the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF).
A special court in Punjab’s Mohali has ordered the attachment of the immovable property — measuring 24 kanals, 14 marlas and 4 sarsai — under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in connection with the seizure of heroin and drug money in 2019. The land is located in Devidaspura village of Amrtisar Rural district.
The NIA had registered the case on January 22, 2020, based on the original first information report (FIR) dated May 31, 2019, related to the seizure of 500 grams of heroin and ₹1.2 lakh of drug money from Jagbir Singh Samra and two others, including Mr. Chahal and Harpreet Singh.
Narco-terror network
The agency found that Mr. Chahal was allegedly a close associate of an international Dubai-based drug smuggler and money launderer, Jasmeet Singh Hakimzada, and also of the Pakistan-based self-styled chief of KLF, Harmeet Singh aka Ph.D. Mr. Chahal was engaged in the collection of heroin consignments from Kashmir-based drug dealers on the directions of Mr. Hakimzada and Mr. Singh, as part of a KLF narco-terror module.
The wide network was being operated by the terrorists through India-based drug smugglers. It involved drug smugglers, terror operatives and “hawala” operatives from Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi. Mr. Singh, better known as Ph.D, was using the drug money to strengthen and expand KLF’s activities in India and to radicalise vulnerable youth, as alleged.
“The other mastermind, Hakimzada, has been engaged in the promotion of narco-terror activities internationally and has been involved in the smuggling of heroin and psychotropic substance around the world. The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed financial sanctions against him by declaring him as a ‘Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker’,” said the NIA.
Global drug trafficker
In February 2019, the OFAC had identified Mr. Hakimzada as a “Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker”, along with his father Harmohan Singh Hakimzada, and mother Eljeet Kaur Hakimzada.
“Jasmeet Hakimzada’s global drug trafficking and money laundering network has been involved in smuggling heroin and synthetic opioids around the world,” Sigal Mandelker, the then-Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, had said in a statement, adding that he ran a global drug trafficking network that smuggled heroin, cocaine, ephedrine, ketamine, and synthetic opioids into the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Money-laundering across borders
Since at least 2008, Mr. Hakimzada has allegedly laundered huge amounts of illicit proceeds using his United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company Maiwand General Trading Company LLC, via financial institutions in the United States, Brazil, India, Panama, the UAE and the United Kingdom.
The OFAC said Mr. Hakimzada’s father was his primary partner in the drug trafficking and money laundering operations and his mother served as an officer in two front companies in India. Among the entities involved were Maiwand Exim Private Limited, Maiwand Tobacco Limited, and Maiwand Beverages Limited, and Maiwand General Trading Company LLC.
On April 5, 2017, a federal grand jury in the U.S. district court for the Middle District of Tennessee had indicted Mr. Hakimzada on 46 counts of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Gangster-turned-terrorist
In another case a few days ago, an NIA special court had ordered the confiscation of the property of an absconding alleged pro-Khalistan terrorist, Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias Landa, in Punjab’s Kirian village in Tarn Taran.
The “gangster-turned-terrorist” has been operating from Canada since 2017. He is allegedly a mastermind in several cases of terrorism, including the 2022 rocket-propelled grenade attacks on the Punjab police intelligence headquarters and the Sarhali police station in Punjab. The accused was declared a proclaimed offender on July 27.
