Sweet boxes carried opium to Canada. The money bought guns for Punjab gangs

“The batch was being sent by one Khusdeep Singh from Bhatinda’s Kotli Khurd area. And it was going to a man named Sukhpreet Singh in Canada’s Brampton,” said a police officer.

As police dug deeper into the seizure, they found that opium sold in Canada was allegedly financing a parallel syndicate involving weapons being smuggled into Punjab to arm gangsters. The buyer of the opium, police claimed, was one of India’s most wanted men and a top separatist leader, Khalistan Tiger Force founder Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dalla.

This month, Delhi Police filed a more than 500-page chargesheet in the case, laying out the investigation into the network and the people allegedly involved.

The drug supply route

Dalla is from Punjab’s Moga district, about a four-hour drive from Delhi. He left for Canada in 2018, allegedly using a fake passport obtained with the help of a Punjab Police official. 

But he maintained contact with several old associates in and around Barnala, about 40 km from Moga, police officers who tracked him told The Indian Express.

“One of them was Hardeep Singh. His father is a farmer and owns some land in Barnala. Hardeep had met Dalla many years ago as a teenager,” said an investigating officer.

Wanted gangster and Khalistan Tiger Force founder Arsh Dalla.

Hardeep, 28, had had a few run-ins with the law and was allegedly in touch with local gangs involved in the ‘chitta’ (drug) trade in the area. “He was already involved in some drug-related incidents in the area. He had a narcotics case against him too,” said a police officer.

In September 2025, Hardeep allegedly received threats from members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Police said he then sought protection from Dalla.

“In November of that year, he went to a party organised by a local politician. There, he met Jasan Sandhu, who ran a bodyguard agency and was providing the muscle for the event. He told Jasan that he wanted to get in touch with Dalla and that he was an old acquaintance,” claimed a police officer.

Hardeep spoke to Dalla over the phone in December. According to police, Dalla offered him a job if he wanted his backing: sending opium to Canada.

“Hardeep’s job was to coordinate the supply of opium from Rajasthan and Haryana. He was added to a group, ‘Bhaang Delivery’, on the Waymaker app,” a police officer said.

According to police, the opium suppliers would allegedly drop the packets at certain locations and send Hardeep their GPS coordinates.

Hardeep, police said, would allegedly send the packets to a man named Simranjeet, who ran a small courier company from Bhatinda. Simranjeet was paid Rs 1 lakh for every packet he sent to international courier services to be sent to Canada, police said.

Once the food packets reached Canada, Hardeep’s brother-in-law, Gurjeet Singh, would receive them for Dalla and his gang. 

The operation, police said, was lucrative because of the huge difference between the price of opium in India and what it could fetch in Canada.

“Opium procured within India for approximately Rs 1.5 lakh per kg (barely Rs 150 per gram) commands a price of between 50 and 100 Canadian Dollars (CAD) per gram — the equivalent, at prevailing exchange rates, of roughly Rs 3,300 to Rs 6,700 per gram. It was sold abroad for over 20 to 45 times its procurement cost,” a senior police officer said.

Money went into guns

According to police, the money earned by Dalla’s gang from the sale of opium was allegedly wired to arms traffickers in Pakistan. The traffickers would then prepare arms consignments for Dalla’s men in Punjab, which were sent through drones, said police.

“Weapons were being pushed into Indian territory through cross-border drone drops in the border belt of Punjab, meant to be placed in the hands of active gang members and associates of Dalla operating within the state,” police said.

Senior police officers said drones have been ferrying narcotics, weapons and explosives from launchpads deep inside Pakistan’s Punjab into India, often under the cover of darkness. Nearly 300 Pakistani drones were intercepted by the Border Security Force and other allied agencies in Punjab in 2024, 287 in 2025, and around the same number until August this year.

“Drones can be launched from any place, at any time, with very little preparation. We have noted evidence of active Pakistani military participation in helping the smugglers launch these drones through training modules,” claimed a senior security official.

Hardeep and his associates would then pick up the arms and hand them to Dalla’s gang, claimed police.

More consignments, more arrests

In February, after the 3-kg opium seizure in West Delhi, a police team led by Inspector Arvind and DCP Harsh Indora went to Punjab and arrested Simranjeet. Based on his inputs, they traced Hardeep to a flat in Mohali.

“He was staying at the house of a singer named ‘Professor’. When we questioned the singer, he said he knew Hardeep from before but didn’t know about the drug trade,” said a police officer.

“The investigation further led to the recovery of 921 grams of opium from another parcel destined for Canada, followed by recovery of 1,196 grams of opium from a third export consignment and 23 grams of opium from the Simranjeet,” said a police officer.

After Hardeep, police nabbed Jasan Sandhu — the alleged coordinator between Dalla in Canada and Hardeep in India. “He initially told Dalla to give him more money or else he would expose his network. Dalla did not pay heed and cut off all contact with him. It’s easy for the gang to replace people. They have similar operations in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan at multiple levels,” said a police officer.

In July, police arrested one more accused in the case — Jivan Singh, a 23-year-old from Balotra area of Rajasthan, who was allegedly sending consignments from there to Hardeep.

“His disclosure led to the recovery of an opium parcel being sent to Canada from Bhatinda. The senders are being traced,” said Dhaliwal.

Police said many people involved in the drops and delivery of weapons inside Punjab are yet to be nabbed. Hardeep, meanwhile, is out on bail.