Drugs, illegal contraband seized in poll-bound Mizoram

Aizawl: Ahead assembly elections, law enforcing agencies -- as part of their raids against drugs peddling and illegal contraband -- have seized various illegal items, including drugs valued at Rs 36.32 crore, top election official said on Wednesday.

Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Madhup Vyas said that seized contraband include, heroin valued at Rs 19.28 crore followed by Rs 8.84 crore foreign origin cigarettes, Rs 4.28 crore highly addictive Methamphetamine tablets, Rs 1.16 crore liquor and Rs 38 lakh gelatin and cortex.

Police officials said that most of the drugs and other contrabands are smuggled from Myanmar, which shares 510 km unfenced border with Mizoram.

The Election Commission, during its recent visit to Mizoram and subsequently, issued several directives to the Central and state law enforcing agencies to further step up their efforts to prevent smuggling from the neighbouring countries or to seize the illegally imported drugs, contrabands and nab the smugglers.

The CEO while talking to the media said that apart from the 3,000 odd state police personnel and out of the 450 sections of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), 10 companies of Border Security Force, five companies of CRPF and SSB have reached Mizoram and are already in their places of deployment.

The EC has appointed 46 different categories of observers including 21 general observers to oversee the poll process.

Elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly would be held on November 7.

According to the security officials, Tripura's border with Bangladesh and Mizoram and Manipur’s unfenced frontier with Myanmar have become an easy corridor for drugs smuggling in northeast India.

Besides various illicit drugs, foreign cigarettes, gold, arms and ammunition, exotic animals, and areca nuts are often smuggled from Myanmar into the northeastern states.