Aizawl, Nov 4: Mizoram Police seized Rs. 120.50 crore worth drugs and narcotics during the last 10 months, IGP (headquarters) Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said on Saturday.
Khiangte said state police personnel seized 60 kilos and 356 grams of heroin between January 1 and October 31 with 205 cases being registered and 293 heroin traffickers arrested.
He said 127 kilos and 757 grams of Methamphetamine, as well as 27 kilos and 866 grams of Crystal Meth have been seized. “Fourteen cases were registered and 21 people have been arrested for trafficking Methamphetamine while four cases have been registered and six persons arrested for smuggling Crystal Meth.
Chrystal Meth is not clandestinely manufactured like Methamphetamine tablets as it is manufactured in crystalised form. Khiangte said one kilo of heroin cost Rs 30 lakh in the market and one kilo of Methamphetamine is sold at Rs 13 lakh, while one kilo of Crystal Meth cost Rs 3 crore.
The other drug seizures included 4 kilos and 918 grams of raw opium, 112 kilos and 732 grams of Ganja (cannabis) and a large quantity of clinical drugs like codeine, widely abused by youths and pseudoephedrine which is the precursor for the illegal manufacture of Methamphetamine, smuggled from India to Myanmar.
Meanwhile, state excise and narcotics department officials seized 74 kilos and 220 grams of heroin during the same period of 10 months. The total amount of heroin seized by the state excise and narcotics department and the Police is a whopping 134 kilos and 576 grams.
Drugs and narcotics trafficking from South East Asia to Mizoram via Myanmar has increased immensely after the military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021 mainly due to the absence of efficient administration in the country and especially Chin state adjoining Mizoram.
Ethnic turbulence in neighbouring Manipur since May 3 has increased the inflow of drugs to Mizoram as the Manipur-Myanmar border remained closed diverting the flow of drugs to Mizoram.
Mizoram shares a 404-km long extremely porous international border with Myanmar which has close proximity with the infamous Golden Triangle. (UNI)
