Zero Tolerance: How India Hunted Down Drug Kingpin Navpreet Singh in Türkiye

In a major breakthrough in India's ongoing battle against narcotics, drug-trafficking kingpin Navpreet Singh has been extradited from Türkiye. Singh had been operating under the assumed identity of Navab Virk, through which he had also obtained Turkish citizenship.

 

 

 

In recent months, he is the second drug kingpin deported from Türkiye. Earlier, Salim Dola, a key aide of wanted terrorist and underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was deported from Türkiye. Central agencies have been coordinating with their counterparts in Türkiye, the UAE and other countries to secure the deportation of such fugitives. 

 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that a hardened narco-trafficking kingpin, Navpreet Singh, has been deported from Turkiye. He termed it a "historic milestone of the Modi government.

 

 

 

Shah took to X to announce the development, saying that Singh obtained Turkish citizenship under the fake identity of Navab Virk and continued to smuggle heroin and methamphetamine to India from Afghanistan.

 

 

Navpreet Singh was allegedly linked to an international narcotics network with operations connecting India, Afghanistan and Türkiye, PTV News reported.Navpreet Singh alias Nav is reportedly a native of village Vajir Bhullar in Beas.

 

The case dates back to 2021 when the Delhi Police made the" biggest-ever drug recovery", seizing 354 kg of heroin worth ₹2500 crore. Police also arrested four people, including an Afghan national.

 

The accused were identified as Rizwan Kashmiri, a resident of Ghitorni in Delhi and native of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh and Gurjot Singh, both residents of Jalandhar in Punjab and Hazrat Ali, a native of Kandahar in Afghanistan, police had said, as per PTI.

 

 

At the 3rd annual anti-narcotics conference on September 22, Shah had reiterated the importance of having a dedicated campaign to deport foreign accused present in India and blacklist them so they can never re-enter the country. “The fugitives who are supplying drugs to the country from abroad should be caught and brought before the Indian courts. By targeting borders and production centres, all loopholes must be plugged,” he added.

 

The government’s three-year plan to crack down on drugs has identified 25 top fugitive drug smugglers settled abroad, two of whom have already been brought back. Each state has been tasked with identifying top drug dealers in their area and nabbing them before December 2029.