COORDINATED searches in Mizoram and Manipur have led to the busting of an IndiaMyanmar border drugs-linked hawala network with the arrest of six persons, freezing of around 1,424 bank accounts and attachment of assets worth about Rs 26 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Sunday. The raids,which were launched on Friday, covered multiple premises in Aizawl, Champhai and Lawngtlai in Mizoram and Churachandpur in Manipur as part of three money laundering cases arising from cross-border trafficking of narcotics like heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets from Myanmar, the Central agency said in a statement. The action covered the premises of hawala operators, muleaccount holders, front businesses and the mini-ATM counter in Champhai, Aizawl, Lawngtlai and Churachandpur, and bank branches holding the key accounts, it added. The operation was undertaken in coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Mizoram Police. During the action, 1,424 bank accounts connected to narcotrade and narco-hawala operators in Mizoram and Manipur were frozen while assets worth Rs 26.01 crore were provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said.

 

It added six accused persons -- three each from the two states -- were arrested. The agency said the 1,643- km-long “porous” border with Myanmar works as a “two-way street” for drugs trafficking through the ChamphaiZokhawthar sector of Mizoram. In one direction, precursor and cutting chemicals move from India to Myanmar. In the other direction, the finished heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets produced in Myanmar are carried across the Tiau river at Zokhawthar, the border crossing opposite Khawmawi in Myanmar, and brought to Champhai, from where they travel down the ChamphaiAizawl road and NH-06A to Aizawl, Vairengte and the Assam and Tripura borders. Heroin and methamphetamine tablets entering Mizoram and Manipur are consumed locally and moved onward through Assam to the rest of India and Bangladesh, and the drug money generated across this chain flows back to the border towns of Mizoram for settlement with the Myanmarbased suppliers, according to the agency. The ED claimed mule bank account holders “admitted” during the probe that their accounts were rented to suspected narco-hawala operators for Rs 500 per lakh.