Mizoram: Drugs valued at Rs 2.41 crore seized, 4 arrested

Aizawl, Aug 13 (IANS) The Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police, in three separate joint and coordinated operations, seized drugs worth around Rs 2.41 crore and arrested four alleged drug peddlers in Mizoram’s Saitual district, officials said on Thursday.

A police official said that a special team of the police, in a joint operation with Assam Rifles troops, conducted a check at the outskirts of Keifang in Saitual district and recovered 868 grams of heroin concealed in 73 soap cases from a truck. The seized heroin was valued at around Rs 1.74 crore. The driver and his assistant of the vehicle, identified as Monwar Singh Barbhuiya and Abdul Kayum Munna, both residents of Cachar district in southern Assam, were arrested in connection with the seizure.

In another operation in the same district, a special police team searched Keifang and recovered 292 grams of heroin concealed in 25 soap cases. The seized contraband, valued at approximately Rs 58.40 lakh, was allegedly found in Vungngailun’s possession. The arrested drug peddler is a resident of Henglep in Manipur and was travelling as a passenger in a vehicle coming from Manipur towards Aizawl, the official said.

In the third operation, police personnel from Ngopa Police Station and Assam Rifles troops conducted a joint random check along Tuisa Road in Kawlbem village. During the checking, the security personnel recovered 18.520 kg of dry ganja, valued at around Rs 9.26 lakh, from the possession of a person identified as Samuel Lalruatpuia, a resident of Kawlbem in Saitual district.

Three separate cases have been registered by the Mizoram Police under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, in connection with the seizures, officials said.

The latest seizures come amid intensified efforts by security agencies to curb the trafficking of narcotics through Mizoram, which has increasingly emerged as an important transit corridor for drugs in the Northeast. Officials said Mizoram’s long and largely unfenced international border with Myanmar has made the state particularly vulnerable to cross‑border narcotics trafficking. Myanmar forms part of the infamous Golden Triangle, one of the world’s major illicit narcotics‑producing regions.

Mizoram shares a 510‑km‑long unfenced international border with Myanmar and a 318‑km border with Bangladesh, making the state vulnerable not only to the smuggling of narcotics but also to wildlife products, arms, ammunition and other contraband.

Security agencies have intensified surveillance, intelligence gathering and coordinated anti‑drug operations, particularly across the state’s border districts, in recent months to check the growing menace of transnational narcotics trafficking and other organised cross‑border crimes. Officials said such coordinated operations involving the state police and central security forces were being carried out to identify and disrupt trafficking networks operating along the routes connecting Myanmar and other neighbouring areas with the rest of the Northeast.

–IANS

sc/dan