Amritsar Commissionerate Police on Friday claimed to have busted a cross-border drug and weapon smuggling cartel with the arrest of 12 people.

Among those arrested includes alleged kingpin Manjeet Singh alias Bhola from Jhanjoti village in Ajnala, officials said.

Police teams have seized 2.19 kg of heroin, three sophisticated pistols including two automatic and Rs 2.60 lakh drug money from their possession, besides, impounding their Toyota Fortuner car, they said.

The accused Manjeet, who is a key player, was in direct contact with Pakistan-based smugglers/handlers and was receiving consignments of drugs and weapons from across the border, Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said in a statement.

Investigations revealed that consignments were being dropped at Ramdas and Ajnala border sectors with the help of drones, he said.

The DGP said that further investigations are underway to establish forward and backward linkages in the case.

Amritsar Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that based on a tip-off about the accused Aniket being into the drug smuggling business, police teams apprehended him.

Aniket’s arrest unearthed the entire network and led to the arrest of kingpin Manjeet and all the accomplices from different locations, the officer said.

He said among the arrested five were apprehended from Jammu and Kashmir with the help of J&K Police.

The officer said Manjeet was using the house of another arrested woman Babli, who is an Anganwari worker, to store the consignments and was using his accomplices to distribute further.

Further investigations are underway to uncover the entire network and more arrests and recoveries are likely in coming days, he added.