Tripura Police on Sunday seized drugs worth Rs 4 crore and arrested a drug peddler, who ferried the narcotics to the state from Mizoram via southern Assam, an official said. A police official said that during vehicle checking at Churaibari, the inter-state checkpoint in North Tripura district, police intercepted a vehicle coming from Assam and, after a thorough search, recovered over 80,000 highly addictive methamphetamine tablets valued at over Rs 4 crore.
A case has been registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985, the official said. He said that though the officials are interrogating the arrested person identified as Sanjay Sahani (24), they suspect that the methamphetamine tablets, also known as Yaba or party tablets, were smuggled from Myanmar.
The methamphetamine tablets, a coloured pill, have become increasingly popular among young people in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, as well as Vietnam, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh. Sunday’s drug seizure took place in Tripura within four days after the confiscation of marijuana (Ganja) in Agartala.
On June 12, Assam Rifles, in close coordination with officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), seized approximately 195 kg of marijuana worth Rs 30 lakh from Taranagar areas on the outskirts of Agartala.
Assam Rifles, in a statement, said that this interdiction is part of the sustained efforts by Assam Rifles to curb illegal activities along the India-Bangladesh border and uphold national security. Assam Rifles continues to maintain a high level of vigilance to disrupt the activities of smuggling networks operating in the northeast, the statement said.
Various drugs, including methamphetamine tablets and heroin, are smuggled from Myanmar and illegally ferried to various parts of India and Bangladesh through the northeastern states.
Myanmar, which shares a 1,643 km unfenced border with four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram -- serves as a key transit point for drugs and other contrabands entering India.