India secures deportation of 'hardened narco-trafficking kingpin' Navpreet Singh from Türkiye, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Saturday that India has secured the deportation of “hardened narco-trafficking kingpin” Navpreet Singh from Türkiye, calling it a “historic milestone” of the Modi government.

Posting on X, Shah said Singh had obtained Turkish citizenship under the fake identity of “Navab Virk” while continuing to smuggle heroin and methamphetamine into India from Afghanistan. “Agencies unmasked his true identity and secured his deportation,” Shah said, according to reports in The Times of India and The Tribune India.

Singh has been brought back to India and lodged in custody in connection with cases involving drug trafficking and other crimes, the reports said.

The case traces back to a 2021 probe that began with the arrest of Rizwan Kashmiri in South Delhi. Officials told India TV that agencies recovered 166 kg of heroin from one vehicle and 115 kg from a second, with a cousin, Prabhdeep Singh, acting as the operational link in India.

Reiterating the government’s anti-narcotics pledge, Shah said the Centre remains committed to “destroying every narco-cartel before December 2029”.