An aircraft maintenance engineer of a private airline was arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Task Force in Leh on Monday after recovering heroin from his possession, officials said.
The person has been identified as Ajay Thakur, 22, a resident of Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district. According to NDTV, he was working for IndiGo.
The incident has triggered a wider investigation into the suspected nexus between airport personnel and drug syndicates operating in the region, PTI quoted officials as saying.
During routine patrolling duty, a team of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) intercepted Thakur, while he was travelling in a private car. The officials later seized 2.27 grams of heroin from his possession.
Subsequently, an FIR was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at the ANTF police station.
Officials said that the matter follows a series of successful ANTF operations in recent weeks exposing the growing interstate network of drug traffickers attempting to target the youth of Ladakh.
“The investigation is now focused on establishing the source of the contraband and identifying the possible links between airport employees, interstate suppliers and local drug peddlers. The investigating agencies are examining whether the accused was acting independently or as part of a larger network involved in facilitating the movement and distribution of narcotic substances in Ladakh,” PTI quoted an official as saying.
Since the beginning of 2026, law enforcement agencies in the Union Territory have registered 33 NDPS cases and arrested 27 accused persons. They have seized a wide range of narcotic and psychotropic substances.
As per the official data, enforcement agencies have seized 3.523 kg of charas, 4.9 kg of ganja, 40.39 gm of heroin, 1.709 kg of brown sugar, 289 mg of cocaine, along with other narcotic substances during various operations conducted across the Union Territory.