Aizawl, June 19 (IANS) Women are increasingly being drawn into drug smuggling operations from Myanmar, with security personnel arresting three females and recovering heroin worth Rs 4.75 crore from their possession in Mizoram, officials said on Friday.

A defence spokesman said that based on credible intelligence inputs regarding the transhipment of narcotics in the Keifang area of northern Mizoram’s Saitual district, troops of the Assam Rifles, in coordination with the Mizoram Police, established a joint checkpost at Keifang.

During the meticulously planned operation, the joint team apprehended three women and recovered 634 grams of heroin, estimated to be worth Rs 4.755 crore in the illegal market.

The recovered narcotics and the three arrested women were subsequently handed over to the Mizoram Police in Saitual district for further investigation and legal proceedings.

Saitual district shares both an inter-state border with Manipur and an international border with Myanmar. The seizure reaffirms the Assam Rifles’ steadfast commitment to combating drug trafficking and safeguarding the security and well-being of the people of Mizoram, an official statement said.

Officials noted with concern that women in Mizoram are gradually becoming involved in the smuggling of narcotics from Myanmar and their subsequent transportation to other states across the country.

Earlier this month, in a major crackdown on drug trafficking, the Mizoram Police arrested eight women and seized heroin valued at over Rs 70 lakh in six separate operations conducted within a single day in the bordering Champhai district.

The eight women drug peddlers, aged between 19 and 53 years, were residents of different districts of Mizoram.

The Mizoram Police had said that all the seizures were made during routine checking operations as part of ongoing efforts to curb drug trafficking along the India-Myanmar border route. Many women have been arrested in the past for their involvement in drug smuggling activities.

Myanmar’s Chin State has long been regarded as a major transit corridor for the smuggling of narcotics, exotic wildlife species, explosives and other contraband into India through Mizoram’s six border-linked districts — Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual and Serchhip. These six districts share a 510-km-long unfenced and mountainous international border with Myanmar, making the region particularly vulnerable to cross-border smuggling activities and the movement of illegal goods.

Security agencies have repeatedly expressed concern over the use of the porous border by transnational smuggling syndicates, with narcotics trafficking remaining one of the most significant challenges confronting law enforcement agencies in the region.

–IANS

sc/dpb