In a major crackdown on an alleged interstate drug trafficking network, the Nurpur district police arrested three suspected drug peddlers and seized 274-gm ‘chitta’ (heroin), a commercial quantity under the NDPS Act, from their possession late on Wednesday evening.

According to the police, the accused were travelling in a car when a designated team of the Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) of the Nurpur police district intercepted the vehicle at a ‘naka’ in Bhadroya, under the jurisdiction of the Damtal police station.

Acting on specific intelligence that drug peddlers were travelling from Amritsar towards Himachal Pradesh to deliver ‘chitta’ to small local peddlers, the CIA team set up the checkpoint and stopped the vehicle at Bhadroya.

During the search, the police recovered 274-gm heroin packed in a black carry bag from an occupant sitting on a rear seat of the car.

ASP Dharam Chand Verma said the three occupants of the vehicle were arrested. They were identified as Kunal Arora (31) and Mohit Kumar (37) of Amritsar, and Harry (26) of Batala in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.

The police suspect the arrested accused were part of an interstate drug trafficking network operating along the Punjab-Himachal border and were allegedly supplying heroin to local peddlers in the Nurpur police district.

An FIR (no 116/2026) has been registered at the Damtal police station under sections 21, 25 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, in this regard.

The car allegedly used for transporting the contraband has also been seized. The accused were produced before a local court on Wednesday, which granted police remand for further interrogation.

The police said the investigation would focus on tracing the backward and forward links of the alleged trafficking network, and a financial investigation into the accused would be conducted.