An Indiana State Police trooper pulled a commercial truck over for an inspection on I-70 in Putnam County over the weekend and ended up finding several duffle bags stuffed with roughly 277 pounds of cocaine, a haul state police estimate is worth $3.8 million on the street. The driver, 32-year-old Harpreet Singh of Greenwood, was taken into custody and booked into the Putnam County Jail.
According to WLKY, the stop happened on September 6 when a trooper with the Indiana State Police Criminal Interdiction Unit noticed the driver was reportedly operating below industry standards during what began as a routine commercial vehicle inspection. That's when investigators say they discovered the duffle bags packed with cocaine. Singh reportedly told police he was hauling an empty trailer from Memphis, Tennessee, to Indianapolis, according to the same report.
Indiana State Police impounded the vehicle following the discovery. WLKY's report notes police had not specified the exact charges Singh is currently facing, though separate reporting from WTHR indicates preliminary charges of Dealing in a Narcotic Drug and Possession of a Narcotic Drug were filed following the stop, according to WTHR. Putnam County sits about an hour outside Indianapolis, a stretch of I-70 that has become a familiar staging ground for these kinds of busts this year.
A Felony Charge Carrying Decades of Prison Time
Under Indiana Code § 35-48-4-1, dealing 10 grams or more of cocaine is classified as a Level 2 felony, which carries a statutory prison range of 10 to 30 years, an advisory sentence of 17.5 years, and fines up to $10,000, per details published by the Law Office of Jerry L. Garner. Separately, Indiana Code § 34-24-1-1 allows law enforcement agencies to civilly seize and pursue court forfeiture of any vehicle used or intended for use in transporting controlled substances tied to felony drug dealing, a process that runs through its own court filings apart from the criminal case.
The Third Multi-Million-Dollar Bust on This Stretch of I-70 in 2026
This weekend's seizure is not an isolated event. On April 20, an Indiana State Police interdiction trooper seized 392 pounds of cocaine valued at $9 million during a traffic stop on eastbound I-70 near Cloverdale in Putnam County, arresting a 27-year-old commercial truck driver, WTHR reported at the time. Before that, on January 3, troopers seized approximately 309 pounds of cocaine worth $7 million hidden in a semi-truck sleeper berth during a routine DOT compliance check on I-70 eastbound at the 41-mile marker in Putnam County, according to the State of Indiana.
Taken together, that's three separate multi-million-dollar cocaine busts by the Indiana State Police Criminal Interdiction Unit on the same highway segment within a single year. As Hoodline reported in August, Interstate 70 through central Indiana serves as a major national transport corridor for bulk drug shipments moving from the southwestern U.S. border toward eastern and midwestern urban markets. That same month, federal agents and Indiana law enforcement executed the largest single drug seizure in state history, recovering more than 800 pounds of methamphetamine in the greater Indianapolis area, quadrupling the state's previous single-seizure meth record of 225 pounds recovered along I-70 back in 2020.
Interdiction Units and a Governor's Push
The Criminal Interdiction Unit operates full-time across Indiana's highways, using specialized troopers and K-9 units trained to spot commercial vehicle compliance infractions that can point to underlying criminal activity — the kind of inspection that led to this weekend's stop in Putnam County. Governor Mike Braun highlighted expanded highway drug interdiction in January as a core public safety initiative for his administration, emphasizing coordinated operations between state, local, and federal authorities.
In prior commercial vehicle interdictions in Putnam County, state police have worked alongside federal agencies, including ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, when commercial drivers were found transporting bulk narcotics across state lines, according to the State of Indiana. It remains unclear whether any federal agencies have become involved in Singh's case specifically.
