In the past few months, numerous smuggling incidents have taken place in the North East part of India. The security forces have been able to seize a huge amount of narcotics, arms and ammunition.
According to the officials, the Assam Rifles troopers seized a huge haul of Methamphetamine tablets worth Rs. 10.50 crore in Mizoram’s Champhai district. They also arrested a drug peddler from Mayanmar in the incident.
“A drug peddler, resident of Tahan in neighbouring Myanmar was arrested during the operation. The detainee along with the recovered drugs was handed over to Mizoram police for further investigations and prosecution,” a statement informed.
On 26th July 2020, Mizoram police arrested a man and his son who were smuggling 1.9 kg heroin from Myanmar to Mizoram. According to a CID official “The men might have dropped around 280 grams of heroin, valued at Rs 15 lakh, while swimming across a river as they tried to flee after observing the presence of police force”.
Recently, Assam Rifles personnel caught 25 trucks carrying betel nuts. The betel nuts were being smuggled from Myammar and had the value of around Rs 4 crore.
The Assam Forest officials also seized numerous exotic wildlife species and arrested a truck driver & his assistant on 28th July. They were found smuggling a kangaroo, 6 Macaw parrots, 3 Aldabra tortoises & 2 capuchin monkeys.
According to BSF official, on September 29, the para-military troops intercepted two vehicles in an ambush at Mamit district of Mizoram. While conducting a thorough search, the BSF recovered thirty sophisticated arms & ammunition. They also arrested three person.
A number of other smuggling incidents have been reported, even in the current month of November, when drugs valued at Rs. 287 crores were caught in the Manipur’s Thoubal District.
Most of these smuggling incidents were done from Myanmar, which shares 1,643 km of unfenced border with Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Mizoram (510 km), Manipur (398 km) and Nagaland (215 km).
All these smuggling incidents have raise the question of whether North East India has become the smugglers’ paradise in Southeast Asia?
