Mizoram Police seize meth, heroin, smuggled cigarettes worth Rs 6.84 crore

Mizoram Police have seized methamphetamine, heroin and smuggled foreign-made cigarettes together worth about Rs 6.84 crore in three separate operations and arrested six people, an officer said on Tuesday, according to PTI.

Meth and heroin on the Zokhawthar road

The biggest haul came on Monday on the Zokhawthar-Melbuk road in Champhai district, close to the Myanmar border. Police stopped a van and found 3.275 kg of methamphetamine, valued at about Rs 2.62 crore, along with 145 grams of heroin worth around Rs 29 lakh.

The driver, a 65-year-old man, and a 58-year-old woman travelling with him, both residents of Dinthar Veng in Champhai, were arrested.

Heroin hidden in soap cases

On Sunday, a special team of Saitual police stopped a car at Keifang and recovered 733 grams of heroin packed into 58 soap cases. Police put its value at about Rs 1.47 crore. Two young men from Nagaon district in Assam, aged 27 and 19, were arrested.

93 cases of foreign cigarettes

In the third operation, on Monday night, a team of the Aizawl District Executive Force intercepted two vehicles at Seling checkpoint and seized 93 master cases of foreign-origin cigarettes, estimated to be worth Rs 2.47 crore. Two people, one from Aizawl and one from Zokhawthar, were detained.

Police said investigations into all three cases are continuing.

A busy border route

Champhai district shares a long, porous border with Myanmar, and Zokhawthar is one of the main crossing points on it. Mizoram Police, Assam Rifles and the excise department regularly report seizures of methamphetamine tablets and heroin, much of it believed to originate in Myanmar, on roads leading from the border towards Aizawl and on to Assam. Soap cases are a common way of packing heroin in such consignments.

Smuggled foreign cigarettes, which evade customs duty, are another frequent find on the same routes.