In what can be seen as a shocking revelation, a major cache of drugs worth over Rs 500 crore has been seized by the troops of Assam Rifles in Manipur’s Moreh town. Interestingly, the house from where the drugs have been recovered is owned by a lady who is married to a Chinese national. The lady, however, is suspected to be in Mandalay in Myanmar.
Reported by ANI on Tuesday, “Drugs worth over Rs 500 crores, including 54 kg brown sugar & 154 kg Ice Meth, caught in Moreh town of Manipur by Assam Rifles troops.”
Drugs worth over Rs 500 crores, including 54 kg brown sugar & 154 kg Ice Meth, caught in Moreh town of Manipur by Assam Rifles troops. The house belongs to a woman who is suspected to be in Mandalay in Myanmar and is married to a Chinese national. Details awaited: Sources pic.twitter.com/JOTkIWJRDy
— ANI (@ANI) December 7, 2021
Assam rifles’ war against drugs:
It was not the first time when Assam Rifles launched a war against drugs. Earlier this month, it had prevented cross-border trafficking of brown sugar worth Rs 1.20 crores in Manipur’s Tengnoupal area. Assam Rifles, in a tweet, said, “Assam Rifles foils cross border narcotics trafficking in Manipur. Tengnoupal Battalion of AssamRifles, on November, foiled narcotics trafficking of Brown Sugar worth Rs 1.20 crores in Tengnoupal District, Manipur.”
In addition to that, the Assam Rifles had also seized 95,000 ‘World Is Yours’ drug pills worth Rs 3 crore on November 25, in Tadubi Village in Manipur’s Senapati district.
Northeast brimming with drugs from Golden Triangle:
The Manipur Government has reportedly detained a 33-year-old drug kingpin from Myanmar, Kyaw Kyaw alias Abdul Rahim. His arrest had come at the heels of a seizure of a huge consignment of WY tablets (a synthetic drug) in Manipur’s Thoubal district, valuing Rs. 400 crores in the international market.
Rahim’s arrest is actually illustrative of the larger issue that plagues India’s Northeast, viz. Illicit drug trade from the Golden Triangle.
Golden Triangle, as it was named by a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative to highlight what was then the largest drug trading zone across the globe, is a largely mountainous region covering north-eastern Myanmar, northern Thailand, northern Laos and the north-eastern part of Vietnam.
Read more: Narcos India chapter: Northeast is brimming with drugs from the notorious Golden Triangle
The region is infamous as a major producer of Papaver somniferum, more commonly known as opium poppy, which is ultimately used to produce heroin that enters southern China and Hong Kong from here and then spreads out into other parts of the world.
India’s 1,643 km long border with Myanmar puts the country, especially the Northeast in a vulnerable position as far as the drugs problem emanating from the dreaded Golden Triangle is concerned. Thus, several Northeastern states of India are today battling a major drug problem and the proximity to the Golden Triangle is at the core of this issue.
Given the lady’s connection with China and Myanmar, it can be speculated that the drug seized by Assam rifles from Manipur have been smuggled from the Golden triangle. And, if this is the case, the Government needs to look into the matter and protect the region from nefarious agendas of China and the Golden Triangle as well.