Pak-linked drone arms delivery racket busted

An international arms trafficking network linked to Pakistan's ISI-backed suppliers has been busted with the arrest of four operatives involved in supplying high-end foreign-made weapons to organised crime groups across north India, police said on Saturday.

- Agencies

The network sourced foreign-made weapons smuggled from Pakistan using customized, low-altitude, radar-evading drones and supplied them to gangsters in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Traffickers based across the border dropped consignments at pre-marked GPS locations along vulnerable stretches of the international border in Punjab late at night.

Local receivers retrieved the packages, transported them to safe houses, and supplied them to crime networks across India. The module used encrypted communication and changed drop locations frequently to avoid surveillance, police said. The traffickers wrapped weapons in carbon-coated material to evade scanning, and payments were made through hawala and proxy accounts.