Mizoram drug-hawala probe: ED arrests 4 more held in Aizawl jail

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has formally arrested four more people under the money-laundering law in its "Operation Trident" probe into drug money moving between Mizoram, Manipur, Assam and Myanmar, the agency said on Saturday, according to IANS.

All four were already in the Central Jail in Aizawl in narcotics cases filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau. They were produced on production warrants before the Additional District and Sessions Judge-I, Aizawl, who on 29 October allowed their formal arrest and gave the ED 48 hours of custody for questioning. The ED's Aizawl sub-zonal office made the arrests on Friday.

Who has been arrested

According to the ED, the four are a resident of Champhai district in Mizoram, a resident of Bulfek village in Myanmar, and two residents of Assam's Sribhumi district (formerly Karimganj). One was arrested in what the agency calls the Krishiv Enterprise case and three in the Jabrul Haque case.

The ED links them to a consignment of 49.101 kg of methamphetamine seized on 21 August 2025. It describes the Myanmar resident as the supplier, the Champhai man as the main handler, one Sribhumi man as the intended receiver at the Damchhera-Kanhmun border point in Tripura, and the other as an operator whose bank account received Rs 11.44 crore, including Rs 6.67 crore in cash, which then fed hawala accounts in Champhai.

The agency says ten people have now been arrested across three linked cases. These are the agency's allegations; the accused have not yet had their say in court.

What the Churachandpur ledgers show

The ED said searches on 23 October at a house in New Lamka, Churachandpur, turned up cash books and notebooks of a currency-exchange and hawala business. According to the agency, Indian rupees were collected in cash and through bank accounts, converted into Myanmar kyat at about 42 to 48 kyat a rupee, and paid out in Myanmar. Single-day entries ran up to Rs 54.47 lakh.

The agency said a mini-ATM counter linked to the same person pushed more than Rs 175 crore into the banking system, and 991 bank accounts tied to the Churachandpur network have been frozen. Property papers for a Rs 60 lakh purchase and seven signed Rs 10 notes, suspected to be used as tokens to identify hawala recipients, were also seized.

Paying for drugs in goods

The ED says drug suppliers across the border are often paid in kind. Money from the counter and from mule accounts in Mizoram allegedly paid suppliers of flour, edible oil, fuel, groceries, medicines, footwear and cloth, with invoices raised on third parties in Aizawl and border towns such as Champhai, Zorinpui and Tlabung, from where the goods moved into Myanmar.

NEInsider reported earlier this week that the ED had frozen more than 1,400 accounts in the wider Mizoram-Manipur probe. The agency says it is now tracing more operatives and attaching further proceeds of crime.