From Bhupen Goswami
Guwahati: Police and Narcotics Control Bureau in Mizoram today busted a huge quantity of drugs and seized drugs worth around Rs 175 crore. Officers stopped a vehicle and seized methamphetamine tablets from it. Police said the entire japte weighed around 20 kg. Police said an investigation point was set up based on specific information about a possible bid to smuggle drugs in the area. During checking, a vehicle going from Jokhuathar to Aizawl in Mizoram was stopped and drugs and drugs were recovered from it. Not only this, after a large quantity of drugs was recovered, the police have arrested three people, including the driver of the vehicle, in connection with the case.
They have been charged with smuggling drugs, police said. The arrested persons have been identified as Sanghalai Thanga, Lalthala Muna and Bhanla Longura. Yesterday, guwahati police seized a huge consignment of smuggled drugs from Hatigaon area. Elsewhere, in the biggest drug recovery in terms of amount, cachar police in Assam on Sunday foiled a major smuggling attempt to seize prohibited items worth around Rs 175 crore, officials said. According to the police, yaba tablets were among the seized items. During this, action was taken in which a car was stopped and searched and intoxicating tablets were recovered. Officials said they had received specific information about the failure of the smuggling attempt today, based on which a check post was set up when the car was stopped. Meanwhile, the Narcotics Control Bureau has announced that the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland share drugs across India from Myanmar. He said drug trafficking in the Northeast is a challenge to India’s national security.
A senior official of the Narcotics Control Bureau Guwahati Zonal Unit today said opium, heroin, methamphetamine and several other narcotics are smuggled from Myanmar into the Northeast. Moreover, drugs that are illegally cultivated in India travel by the same route for trade. Drugs produced in the ‘Golden Triangle’ enter India through Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland from Bhamo, Lassio and Mandalay in Myanmar. The route divides and one channel moves north through Moreh in Manipur while the other moves south and enters Champhai in Mizoram. Moreh (Manipur), Champai (Mizoram), Dimapur (Nagaland), and Guwahati (Assam) have become the hubs of the drug trafficking industry in india’s northeast.
The Indo-Myanmar border is guarded by the Assam Rifles (AR), a paramilitary force under the operational control of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army, they said. The border faces non-traditional security challenges as it provides a secure channel for movement of insurgents, drug trafficking, gun operation, wildlife smuggling, etc. This is because criminal gangs operate by studying the movement of security forces. Due to strong ethnic unity, strong sense of regionalism and tribal loyalty, many supporters of these criminals on the Indian side provide them with information about the security arrangements in the region.
