Chandigarh, Jul 28 (IANS): Close on the heels of recovery of big hauls of heroin from ports in Gujarat and Maharashtra, Punjab Police have arrested an interstate drug smuggler, who was wanted by the ATS Gujarat, in a 126 kg heroin case, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Thursday.

The arrested accused identified as Rajbir Singh, resident of Amritsar. He was into drug-peddling from long time and had been living discreetly in a rented house to evade arrest.

Divulging details, DGP Yadav said in an intelligence-led operation, a team of the State Special Operation Cell (Amritsar) has arrested Singh from Amritsar city.

During investigations, the police teams also recovered 128 gm heroin and Rs 9,60,000 drug money along with electronic weighing machine from his Toyota Glanza car, which has also been impounded.

Preliminary investigations reveal that the accused drug-peddler has been procuring heroin from his associate, identified as Prabhjit Singh of Tarn Taran, the DGP said, adding in March, both had also travelled to Gujarat's Jamnagar in two vehicles to procure large consignment of heroin.

Rajbir Singh had also taken his mother-in-law Rajwant Kaur along to evade detection by police, he added.

He said the role of the three came into the criminal case registered under the NDPS Act by the ATS Ahmedabad, where a fisherman, identified as Ameen of Dwarka, was arrested for collecting consignment of 126 kg heroin supplied via sea route on March 2.