Punjab police have issued extradition orders for at least 10 Indo-Canadians as part of a crackdown in the state against rampant drug abuse and exportation to North America.
The orders come in the wake of the US President Barack Obama who identified India among 22 major illicit drug-producing or drug-transit countries that "significantly affect the United States".
The South Asian Post reported last week that a memo from Obama stated there is an increase in transshipments of Afghanistan heroin going to Canada, a development of concern that is being addressed by Canada with support from the US.
Punjba police said they are seeking the extradition of Canada-based non-resident Indians  Harbans Singh Sidhu of Burj village in Ludhiana, Gursewak Singh of Leel Megh Singh village in Ludhiana, Amarjit Singh Koonar of Mehmadpur in Jalandhar, Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal of Leel Megh Singh village in Ludhiana, Lehmber Singh of Mahsimpur village in Jalandhar, Sarabjit Singh of Balio village in Ludhiana, Nirankar Singh Dhillon of Appra village in Jalandhar, Parmod Sharma of Karol Bagh in New Delhi, and Maninder Chhina of Jhanjoti village in Amritsar.
A 11th suspect Madan Lal of Samantpur village in Jalandhar is said to be in the UK.
Balkar Singh Sidhu, Punjab’s deputy inspector general of police (DIG), administration, said that extradition proceedings of the 11 persons living abroad has been started by the state, as their open arrest warrants have been obtained from the courts concerned after their declaration as proclaimed offenders in drug cases. 
The matter had been taken up with the central government through the Interpol wing of the CBI to extradite them. 
The South Asian Post reported last year that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in an analytical report say drug seizures originating in India have increased dramatically becoming the number one source/transit country to Canada.
Various methods are used to import heroin into Canada such as postal and courier modes, air transport as well as by land via commercial or traffic vehicles. Particularly in the case of air passengers, an array of concealment methods are utilized to smuggle heroin that range from individuals swallowing the drug to modified suitcases, picture frames, rolling pins, statues and even hiding the heroin in a baby’s diaper bag.
India has also emerged as a source country for ketamine and other party drugs smuggled into Canada.
The RCMP report also identified Indo-Canadian criminal groups as high-level transporters of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals from Canada to the U.S.
With an annual turnover of around US$500 billion dollars, drug trafficking is the third largest business in the world, next only to petroleum and arms trade.
Narcotics agencies say India, wedged between two major drug-producing regions, the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent, is a major transit point for drug smuggling to the West where returns are lucrative.
Last week, Sidhu of Punjab police submitted in an Indian court that that, “The Golden Crescent comprising Afghanistan and Pakistan is the top heroin-producing region in the world. Most of the opium is cultivated in Afghanistan and the heroin factories are located in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” 
He further added that heroin consignments meant for national and international markets transit through Punjab after crossing the border through Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors to reach hubs located in New Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities. From these transit hubs, the consignments are either funneled into the national distribution network or find their way to the international market.
He said Punjab police have arrested 12,695 persons in the last eight months and registered 10,830 first information reports (FIRs) under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, as part of a drive against drug abuse.
The information was submitted in the Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday during the resumed hearing of the case in which former Punjab director general of police (DGP), prisons, Shashi Kant’s petition — blaming ‘narco politics’ for the rampant drug menace in Punjab — was treated as a public interest litigation.
Dwelling further on the data, it was informed that 7,938 persons of the total were arrested and 7,014 FIRs registered in just 122 days in a special drive launched from May 20. Also, 925 persons among these were arrested under section 27 of NDPS Act (consumption of narcotic drugs).
Sidhu, informed the court through his affidavit that as a result of focus on street drug peddling, in 2014 till date 20.95 lakh capsules/pills have been sized along with 12,369 injections, 438 kg of heroin, opium 446 kg, poppy husk 8,553 quintals, smack 13 kg, and 709 kg of other intoxicant powder.
Meanwhile, former Congress MP Jagmeet Singh Brar is alleging political influence of Punjab state government in the police investigation. He submitted in court that the probe in the drug racket should be handed over to the CBI. 
However, Punjab advocate general Ashok Aggarwal informed the court that there was no need of CBI probe since the state police had been doing fair investigation that had been appreciated by the HC earlier, and it was just because of the political reasons that Brar had been raising this issue time and again.
Besides India, other countries on the Obama list were: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
A country's presence on the list does not necessarily reflect its counternarcotics efforts or its level of cooperation with the US on illegal drug control, the State Department clarified.
The designation can reflect a combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to be produced and/or trafficked through a country, it said.
The presidential memo also noted that opium poppy trade in Afghanistan threatens domestic institutions, subverts the legal economy, and undermines good governance and the capacity of the Afghan people.
US support for Afghanistan after 2014 would focus on maintaining established infrastructure and improving security, it said.
The US is also working to secure more bilateral and multilateral assistance from the international community beyond programmes that are already in place.
At the same time, it is in the best interest of countries in the region with high levels of opium-product abuse to support Afghanistan's counter-narcotics efforts, the memo said.
This includes Afghanistan's immediate neighbours — Iran, Pakistan, and Russia — as well as other nations such as India and China.