Security forces seize heroin worth Rs 15.59 crore in Mizoram, Tripura

Security forces have seized huge quantities of heroin worth Rs 15.59 crore and arrested seven drug peddlers during the past 24 hours in Mizoram and Tripura, officials said on 30 August.

Mizoram excise and narcotics department officials seized 3,310 gm of heroin valued at Rs 13.34 crore from two places near state capital Aizawl and arrested four persons on 29 August. The four, aged 25 to 40, are residents of Karimganj and Cachar districts of southern Assam.

In Tripura, police and the Assam Rifles in a joint operation apprehended three youths with 558 gm of heroin on Tuesday, 29 August at Kumarghat in Unakoti district.

The youths, who hailed from West Tripura and Sipahijala districts, were coming from southern Assam in a car along with the heroin, valued at Rs 2.25 crore.

Both Mizoram and Tripura police said as per preliminary information, the drugs were smuggled from Myanmar and through Mizoram, the heroin was being ferried to other parts of the country.

Tripura's 856 km border with Bangladesh and Mizoram's 510 km frontier with Myanmar have become an easy corridor of drug smuggling in north-east India.

Besides various illicit drugs, imported cigarettes, gold, arms and ammunition, exotic animals, and areca nuts are also often smuggled from Myanmar into the north-eastern states, especially Mizoram and Manipur.