Traffickers using children, women to transport drugs from Myanmar via NE Eyes set to snap drug chain from Myanmar

Doulasal (Assam), Jul 13
Days after India sought help from Myanmar to eradicate the menace of drugs, investigators in Assam on Sunday stated that traffickers have even been found using women and even children as conduits to transport narcotics via North East to the rest of the country.
"Many innovative modus operandi have come into fore during our operations. There are cases where women and children have been found to be used by traffickers as passengers in trains or buses to transport drugs. Since narcotic substances like heroin, brown sugar or cocaine are very costly, they resort to use the children to carry in small quantities in their pockets or even inside dolls," Munna Prasad Gupta, Special Director General of (CID, Assam), told DH here in Nalbari district, about 50 km west of Guwahati.
Gupta was speaking on the sideline of an event organised by the State police to destroy seized drugs worth Rs. 471.52 crore as part of the Assam Government's "War on Drugs" campaign.
Kicking off the destruction drive, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma drove a yellow road roller over 2.29 lakh bottles of cough syrups, which were seized by the State police in the past three years.
The destroyed substances, seized in nine dis- tricts, included heroin, cocaine, morphine, cannabis, tablets and capsules, opium, poppy straw and opium plants.
The destruction drive will continue for the next 10 days.
Stating that continuous inflow of drugs from Myanmar, particularly heroin and methamphetamine tablets (a stimulant drugs) through the borders in Manipur and Mizoram emerged as a worry, Sarma said his Government decided to intensify the "War on Drugs" campaign in view of Home Minister Amit Shah's recent initiatives to crack down on trafficking of drugs from Myanmar though the North East.
"The North East and Bengal are used as a transit. With BJP coming to power in Bengal, I believe that this will help us carry out a more systematic and vigorous drive against this international network of drug traffickers. Our CID personnel even came across incidents where conduits used fake plasters (used in case of broken hands or legs) to transport drugs. Women and children are also being used, which has become a serious concern now," Sarma said.
"Not much was done before 2016 (when Congress was in power) to eradicate drug menace. If we look at the seizure data, in 2015, only one kg of heroin was seized whereas in 2024, our police department seized 183 kgs of heroin. We have seized drugs worth Rs 1,000 crores annually in the past five years. More than 3,300 cases have been registered in the past five years while drugs worth Rs. 3,227 crores have been destroyed so far to send a strong message to the drug trafficking network," Sarma said, adding that the drive will intensify in the coming days.
Sarma said Shah recently told him that he would soon meet the Chief Ministers and Director Generals of Police in the North East to strengthen the coordination mechanism for ending the menace of drugs from Myanmar.  Deccan Herald