Drugs worth Rs 8 crore seized in Assam, Manipur; 8 held

Guwahati, Aug 24 (IANS) The security forces have seized drugs worth over Rs 8 crore in Assam and Manipur and arrested eight drug peddlers in these connections during the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday.

Officials in Guwahati said that police in Sribhumi district (formerly Karimganj district) arrested two drug peddlers and recovered 20,000 highly addictive methamphetamine tablets valued at over Rs 3 crore from them. The Assam Police, in another operation conducted on the basis of secret operations on Saturday night, arrested one person in Karbi Anglong district and recovered 4.1 kg of morphine worth over Rs 4 crore from his custody.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appreciated the police for recovering drugs in Sribhumi and Karbi Anglong districts.

In Manipur, a joint team of Manipur Police, CRPF and BSF in a drug-related operation arrested five persons, including a woman in Thoubal district and seized banned methamphetamine tablets worth over 1 one crore from their possession. The security forces also seized six mobile handsets, multiple account ledgers and diaries, two vehicles used in drug trafficking and 120 empty plastic containers from the houses of arrested persons.

A police official in Imphal said that out of five arrested persons, Muhammad Mustakim (39) is a habitual offender and has been arrested before by Assam Police in 2022 in Guwahati for transporting 205 soap cases containing heroin. Mustakim was in jail for two years and was released on bail in January 2025.

Another detainee, Muhammad Baboy alias Yahiya Khan (35), a habitual offender, was also arrested earlier by Assam Police in 2020 in Guwahati for illegally carrying 7,000 methamphetamine tablets and released on bail in 2023, the official said.

Both Assam and Manipur Police officials suspect that the drugs were smuggled from Myanmar and intended to be ferried to other parts of the country or abroad.

Various drugs and different types of contraband, including exotic animals, are often illegally traded through six districts in Mizoram -- Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual, and Serchhip -- which share unfenced borders of 510 km with Myanmar. Drugs are also smuggled from Myanmar through Manipur, which also shares 398 km of unfenced borders with the neighbouring country, a major drug supply nation in Southeast Asia.

--IANS

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