Delhi 139 drug offenders arrested under 'Operation Kavach-8.0'

New Delhi, Jun 20 (PTI) Delhi Police has arrested 139 drug offenders and registered 133 cases under the NDPS Act as part its ongoing "Operation Kavach-8.0", an official on Friday said.
     The operation, conducted across 1,040 locations in the national capital, saw the involvement of over 350 teams from all 15 districts of Delhi Police, including the Special Cell and Crime Branch.
     "The 24-hour exercise began at 6 pm on June 18 and concluded at 6 pm on June 19," said Special Commissioner of Police (CP), Crime, Devesh Chandra Srivastava.
     As part of the drive, Delhi Police recovered 90.3 grams of heroin, 25.9 kg of ganja, 3.32 grams of cocaine, 4.63 grams of MDMA, 20.08 grams of amphetamine and 12 buprenorphine tablets, he added.
     Besides narcotics, 217 cases were registered under the Delhi Excise Act with the arrest of 224 people and 47,476 quarters of illicit liquor were seized, police said.
     In addition to drug-related cases, 30 people were arrested in 29 Arms Act cases leading to the recovery of six semi-automatic pistols, two country-made pistols, seven live cartridges, three magazines and 23 knives, they said.
     Delhi Police also arrested 55 people in 28 gambling cases and seized Rs 25,592 in cash.
     As many as 5,682 people were taken into preventive custody and 494 vehicles were impounded under Section 66 of the Delhi Police Act, police said.
     "Under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2,031 violators were prosecuted and one person was arrested with over 1.71 lakh prohibited foreign cigarettes and 469 e-cigarettes," said the Special CP.
     Ekanjot Singh Sandhu (18) from Punjab was held with four semi-automatic pistols in southeast Delhi, police said.
     The weapons were allegedly sourced from Madhya Pradesh for gang-linked associates in Punjab, they said.
     Prohibited e-cigarettes worth around Rs 9.38 lakh were also seized from a shop in Safdarjung Enclave, police said.
     The senior police officer said that since January 2025, a total of 1,439 narco-offenders have been arrested in 1,127 NDPS cases, with seizures of nearly 38 kg heroin, over 3,000 kg cannabis and other contraband.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)