Assam Rifles troops scored a big win against smugglers in Mizoram, seizing high-value poppy seeds and foreign cigarettes worth Rs 8.70 crore while arresting 10 people, officials reported Sunday.
It all started Saturday night when the force acted on tips about contraband moving through the Seiling and Zokhawsang areas in Aizawl district. Troops stopped four trucks heading to Aizawl at the Zokhawsang gate on National Highway-6. A quick search turned up 650 bags of premium Grade-A white poppy seeds and 35 cartons of imported cigarettes, with a street value of about Rs 5.9 crore.
The team nabbed seven suspects right there, all from Mizoram’s border district of Champhai.
In a separate bust, Assam Rifles teamed up with Mizoram Police after getting intel on smuggled foreign cigarettes heading through the Tlangsam area in Champhai district. The shipment was sneaking from the Tiao River—right on the India-Myanmar border—via a forest path. The joint squad tracked it down at a key spot and seized 146 cases of various foreign cigarette brands from Myanmar, valued at Rs 2.80 crore. They caught three locals from Tlangsam carrying the load.
Authorities handed the suspects and goods to Champhai’s Legal Metrology Department for further action.
This crackdown highlights the ongoing smuggling challenges along Mizoram’s 510-kilometer unfenced border with Myanmar’s Chin state. That region serves as a major route for drugs like addictive methamphetamine tablets and heroin, plus arms, explosives, exotic wildlife, and other illegal items. These goods often flow into six Mizoram districts—Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual, and Serchhip—before heading to other parts of India via Assam and Tripura, or even abroad to places like Bangladesh.
Such India-Myanmar border seizures show how security forces keep fighting to curb drug smuggling and contraband trade in the northeast.
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