Imphal/Aizawl, March 4 In a major blow to the drug cartel and the perpetrators of drug business, the Assam Rifles troops apprehended a drug peddler and seized heroin valued Rs 15.4 crore in Manipur, officials said on Tuesday.
A defence spokesman said that acting on secret information, the Assam Rifles jawans intercepted a white Mahindra bolero vehicle at Thingkangphai Village under Churachandpur district on Monday late night and arrested Thangsuanman (44), a resident of M Tanglian Village.
The para-military personnel recovered and seized the heroin valued at Rs 15.4 crore. The drugs were concealed in 132 soap cases. The apprehended individual, vehicle and seized drugs were handed over to Churachandpur Police station for further investigations and taking legal actions under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985.
Churachandpur district shares an inter-state border with Mizoram, which has a Mizoram 510 km and 318 km unfenced border with Myanmar and Bangladesh respectively.
Officials suspect that the heroin smuggled from Myanmar, the main source of drugs and various other contraband being regularly smuggled to the northeastern states of India and Bangladesh.
Last week, the Assam Rifles in association with Mizoram Police in two separate joint operations seized huge quantities of drugs worth Rs 66.31 crore from bordering Champhai district, which shares an unfenced border with Myanmar and a hotspot of drugs smuggling.
Myanmar’s Chin state makes drug smuggling rampant through Mizoram’s six districts -- Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual, and Serchhip.
Myanmar, which shares a 1,643 km unfenced border with four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km), and Mizoram (510 km) -- serves as a key transit point for drugs, particularly heroin and methamphetamine tablets, entering India.
From the northeastern states, these drugs are further smuggled into Bangladesh, which shares a 1,880 km border with Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km), and Assam (263 km).
While a significant portion of the India-Bangladesh border is fenced, the India-Myanmar border remains entirely open, facilitating illicit trafficking.
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