The Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police seized heroin worth more than ₹7.40 crore in two joint operations on June 30, arresting three people, including a woman, in the latest sign of how deeply Manipur and Mizoram’s shared border with Myanmar has been drawn into regional narcotics trafficking.
In the larger of the two operations, a joint team intercepted a Bolero pickup at Ngopa on the Khawzawl-Sinzawl Road in Saitual district and recovered 64 soap cases containing nearly 837 grams of heroin, valued at roughly ₹6.28 crore. A Defence spokesperson said preliminary investigation traced the consignment to Manipur’s Churachandpur district, bound for further distribution in Aizawl; two men from Assam’s Cachar district were arrested. In a separate operation at the Seling check post in Aizawl district, troops intercepted a woman from Manipur’s Chandel district carrying heroin worth about ₹1.13 crore concealed in soap cases.
Officials describe both operations as part of a sustained effort to secure the roughly 510-kilometre unfenced Mizoram-Myanmar border and the 398-kilometre unfenced stretch along Manipur’s own frontier with Myanmar, spanning Churachandpur, Tengnoupal, Chandel, Kamjong, and Ukhrul districts — all cited as part of the Golden Triangle trafficking network centred on Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand.
The seizure sits inside a much larger pattern. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the state seized narcotics worth ₹2,919 crore and made more than 23,000 drug-related arrests over five years, while National Crime Records Bureau figures show 3,013 cases registered nationally under the NDPS Act in 2025 alone, with 4,453 arrests. Security officials and regional politicians, including former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, have separately raised concern that trafficking networks are actively working to route more Golden Triangle narcotics through Manipur specifically, following a major heroin and opium seizure near Guwahati in May traced back to a bus from Manipur’s Kakching district.
Analysts describe the trafficking corridor as no longer confined to the classic Myanmar-Laos-Thailand Golden Triangle. Suhas Chakma, director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group, has argued that Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh now function as a “New Golden Triangle,” pointing to alleged trafficking links involving armed groups operating out of Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts alongside the established Manipur- and Mizoram-based routes. Officials cited by regional outlets identify Moreh in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district and Champhai and Kolasib districts in Mizoram as key entry points, with onward routes running through Cachar and Silchar toward Guwahati and the rest of the country.
Security agencies have continued to name Churachandpur and Chandel — both cited in this week’s Mizoram seizures as points of origin — among the most active trafficking corridors in the region, underscoring how Manipur’s own internal conflict and displacement have coincided with a period of expanding cross-border narcotics flow. Sentinel NE Desk will continue tracking enforcement action and regional trafficking patterns as this desk’s ongoing coverage area.