Aizawl, Jan 23: Foreign cigarettes valued at Rs 3.38 crore were seized from Tuichang bridge areas of Lawngtlai district in Mizoram and one person was arrested in this connection, officials said on Thursday.
A defence spokesman said that in yet another success in its crusade against smuggling activities, Assam Rifles, along with Mizoram Police personnel recovered 260 cases of foreign cigarettes, smuggled from Myanmar.
The accused hails from the Champhai district. The entire consignment has been handed over to the Police Department of Hnahthial under Lawngtlai district for further legal proceedings. The Assam Rifles christened as the ‘Sentinels of Northeast’, doubled efforts to nab the kingpins behind the smuggling of contraband in Mizoram, an official statement said.
Though there are six Mizoram districts – Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual and Serchhip – share a 510 km-long unfenced border with Myanmar’s Chin state, Champhai district is the hot spot of the smuggling of various drugs, arms and ammunition and various other contraband.
The Assam Rifles troops have seized huge quantities of drugs valued at Rs 74 crore in Tripura and Manipur during the past week. On January 16, in a significant blow to the illicit drug trade, the para-military personnel successfully intercepted and recovered a massive cache of banned Yaba tablets and Brown Sugar worth around Rs 62 crore from Mata Village in Manipur’s Churachandpur District.
The Assam Rifles personnel also arrested two drug peddlers, including a woman, and recovered Rs 3.37 lakh, four smart mobile phones with Indian and Myanmar SIM cards from them. On January 20, in a meticulously planned operation, Assam Rifles seized huge quantities of highly addictive 60,000 methamphetamine tablets also known as Yaba tablets worth Rs 12 crore in West Tripura and arrested two drug peddlers.
The drug peddlers were identified as Kanai Das (36) and Kishan Kumar Sarkar (32), both residents of the West Tripura district. The seized drugs and the arrested individuals have been handed over to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence for further investigation and legal proceedings.
IANS