Agartala, Feb 22 In a significant crackdown on smuggling activities, Assam Rifles in collaboration with Customs officials on Saturday seized gold worth Rs 1.02 crore and arrested two persons in Tripura, officials said.
A Defence spokesperson said that acting on secret information, the para-military troops along with Customs officials detained two youths, travelling on a auto, and recovered 14 gold bars and ornaments weighing 1.15 kg, valued at Rs 1.02 crore.
The youths were detained from Badharghat, on the outskirts of the capital city, while they were moving to the Agartala railway station to board a train to go outside the state.
“Acting on a specific intelligence, the joint team of Assam Rifles and Customs officials executed the operation with coordination and recovered the gold and also apprehended two persons,” she said, adding that the seized gold and the individuals were handed over to the Customs authorities for further legal action.
This successful interception is part of Assam Rifles’ ongoing efforts to curb illegal activities along border areas, the official said. Tripura, which shares an 856 km border with Bangladesh, becomes a corridor for the smuggling of various drugs, gold, arms and various other contraband.
The drugs and other contraband are coming from Myanmar and entering Tripura via Mizoram and southern Assam to smuggle to Bangladesh.
In a separate operation on Sunday, the Assam Rifles along with Customs officials seized large quantities of ganja (marijuana) and other contraband items worth around Rs 10.29 crore and arrested two persons in Tripura.
The Defence spokesperson said that in a major crackdown on narcotics smuggling, para-military troops and Customs officials jointly seized 2286.9 kg of marijuana estimated to be worth Rs 10.29 crore from West Tripura district’s Bejoynagar village on Saturday.
She said that two persons were also arrested in connection with the seizure of the dry ganja, which was recovered from a plantation field.
The seized ganja and apprehended individuals were handed over to Customs for further legal action. The successful interdiction is part of the ongoing efforts by Assam Rifles to counter illegal activities along the border areas and ensure national security, the spokesperson stated.
--IANS
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