Chandigarh, March 9 The Punjab Police have frozen properties worth over Rs 600 crore, belonging to drug smugglers, over the past two years as part of intensified efforts to dismantle the financial networks involved in narcotics trafficking in the state.
Officials said on Monday that Punjab accounted for nearly 50 per cent of all properties frozen in drug-related cases across the country in 2024.
This move reflects a shift in enforcement strategy from solely arresting drug traffickers and seizing narcotics to targeting the illegal wealth generated through the drug trade.
According to police data, properties worth approximately Rs 330 crore were frozen in 2024, and assets valued at around Rs 270 crore were frozen in 2025.
Together, these represent more than half of the nearly Rs 1,000 crore worth of assets frozen in drug cases in Punjab since 2017.
The Punjab Police said that investigations are now focusing on tracing the proceeds of drug trafficking through properties, bank accounts, shell companies, and luxury assets.
Residential houses, commercial buildings, agricultural land, and high-value vehicles acquired through illegal earnings have been identified and frozen under relevant legal provisions.
This action is part of the Punjab government's "Yudh Nashean Virudh" (War Against Drugs) campaign, aimed at tackling the drug menace through enforcement, prevention, and rehabilitation.
A senior police official said that the crackdown on the illegal wealth of drug traffickers is aimed at weakening the economic foundations of the drug trade.
"We are not only arresting drug smugglers but also dismantling the financial empires built on drug money. By freezing properties and assets created through illegal earnings, we intend to destroy the incentive that fuels the narcotics trade," the official said.
He added that previously, even after the arrest of traffickers, their properties often remained untouched, allowing networks to continue operations through associates or family members.
Police said that the sustained focus on financial investigations and asset freezing is aimed at weakening the economic networks behind drug trafficking and ensuring that illegal profits from the trade do not survive.