Aizawl, Aug 18 (IANS) The Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police, in two separate joint and coordinated operations, seized heroin worth around Rs 12.09 crore and arrested two drug peddlers in Mizoram’s Saitual district, officials said on Tuesday.
Acting on specific intelligence inputs from a sister agency, the Assam Rifles conducted a joint operation with the Mizoram Police in the Ngopa area of Saitual district, during which the joint team apprehended a drug peddler and recovered 109 soap cases containing 1.180 kg of heroin.
The drugs were concealed in a specially modified chamber behind the vehicle’s rear number plate. The approximate value of the seized drugs is Rs 8.85 crore. The vehicle in which the accused was carrying the drugs was also seized by the joint team.
In another operation, Assam Rifles troops, based on specific intelligence inputs from a sister agency, conducted a joint operation with the Mizoram Police in the same Ngopa area of Saitual district. During the checking of a vehicle, the joint team recovered a concealed packet containing 40 soap cases filled with 432 grams of heroin.
The approximate value of the seized heroin is Rs 3.24 crore. The operation also led to the seizure of the truck and the apprehension of one drug smuggler, identified as Devendra Singh, 57, a resident of Muzaffarpur district in Bihar.
In both cases, the recovered drugs, the two vehicles and the two apprehended drug peddlers were handed over to the Mizoram Police for further investigation and legal action under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
The successful operations highlight the continued efforts of the security forces and Mizoram Police to curb the trafficking of narcotic substances through the state, which has emerged as an important transit route for drugs entering the Northeast from neighbouring Myanmar.
Saitual district is located in the northern part of Mizoram and the mountainous district shares borders with Manipur and Myanmar.
Mizoram has become a major drug trafficking corridor in Northeast India due to its vast unfenced international borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh. The hilly state shares 510 km and 318 km of unfenced international borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, respectively.
Myanmar’s Chin State is considered a major source of smuggling of various drugs, exotic wildlife and other contraband into Mizoram through six districts – Saitual, Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial and Serchhip.
The Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police have been conducting sustained intelligence-based operations along the international border and in vulnerable areas to prevent the smuggling of drugs and other contraband and to dismantle trafficking networks operating in the region.
–IANS
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