Drugs: ED conducts first-ever raids along India-Myanmar border

The federal probe agency also seized ₹35 lakh cash apart from some digital devices.

Locations across Aizawl and Champhai in Mizoram, Sribhumi in Assam and Ahmedabad in Gujarat are being searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , the ED officials said.

India shares a 1,643 long front with Myanmar on its eastern side.

The agency undertook a financial analysis of the arrested persons and found “financial linkages” between some firms located in Mizoram and certain Gujarat-based companies.

The Gujarat firms supplied Pseudoephedrine tablets and Caffeine Anhydrous to the Mizoram-based firms that allegedly had links to drug smugglers who carry out smuggling and hawala transactions through habitual offenders operating in Champhai, the officials said.

Certains financial transactions of the Mizoram entities were also found with certain Kolkata-based shell companies which had procured the said consignment of Caffeine Anhydrous, they said.

Officials said the precursor chemicals used in the production of Methamphetamine are transported from India to Myanmar through the “porous” international border, where they are manufactured, and the final products are transported from Myanmar to India majorly through Mizoram.

Deposits worth ₹52.8 crore were detected in the bank accounts of narco-hawala operators, including cash deposits in Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, West Bengal, Tripura and Delhi, as per the agency’s analysis.

The agency is questioning some hawala operators during the searches during the raids, they said.

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