Centre’s war on cartels fails to choke drug flow into North East

The Centre’s much-touted war against narcotics in the North East seems to be caught in a quagmire even as Union Home Minister Amit Shah has reiterated the government's zero-tolerance policy against drug cartels.

Multiple agencies engaged in the offensive continue to flag the gravity of the menace several years after the campaign was declared, validating the doubts about its success.

Continuous large hauls of contraband consignments across the region further point at the war’s failure to choke the flow of drugs despite the crackdown leading to several arrests and deaths, including alleged extra-judicial killings.

Seizures in Assam

The Assam Police on Friday (March 21) seized around 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 1 crore and arrested one person from the state’s Nagaon area.

Such recoveries are routine in Assam despite the fact that the state has been engaged in the so-called battle against drugs since mid-2021.

Only a fraction of the actual volume of the smuggled drugs gets caught, an Assam Police official said, admitting that the frequent recoveries indicate that the illegal drug supply chain structure is as robust as it was when the offensive was launched.

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Thriving drug trade

In 2024 alone, Assam Police seized 174 kg of heroin, over 21,000 kg of ganja, 33 lakh psychotropic tablets, 14 kg of morphine and 2.3 lakh bottles of cough syrup. The total worth of the entire haul was Rs 682.44 crores.

While these numbers suggest a crackdown on the illicit drug trade, they also highlight the sheer scale of the problem.

That there was no significant drop in the volume of the seizure, as compared to the previous years, goes to prove that the illegal trade is thriving, said an All-Assam Students Union (AASU) leader, Rupjyoti Borthakur.

Massive problem

The influential students' body launched a state-wide awareness campaign against the devastating impact of drugs on society on Tuesday.

As per official figures, 164 kg of heroin, 29,114 kg of ganja, 35,04,119 numbers of Yaba tablets, and 5,85,492 bottles of cough syrup were recovered in 2023. In monetary terms, the value of the sized items was Rs 718 crores.

A similar trend has been witnessed in other north-eastern states. According to the Mizoram government statistics, 627.74 kg of methamphetamine (meth) and 80.814 kg of heroin were seized last year as compared to the 2023 figure of 154.172 kg of meth and 68.055 kg of heroin.

Also read: Drugs worth Rs 88 crore seized; Amit Shah says no mercy for drug cartels

Manipur tragedy

Contraband worth Rs 2,295.93 crores were recovered in the North East in 2023-24 alone, according to a government estimate.

Manipur initiated the war against drugs in 2017. But six years later, when ethnic violence erupted in the state, the conflict over control of narcotics trade was alleged to be the underlying trigger point.

At a high-level security meeting on the restoration of peace in Manipur on March 1, the Union Home Minister instructed the officials to take appropriate measures to make the state drug-free by dismantling its narcotic trade networks.

Manipur unrest and drugs

The directive was the indication of the Home Ministry’s stand that links the violence with the narcotic trade. This also goes on to show the failure of the war.

Geopolitics, geographic position, and loopholes in the system, including high-level patronage, are factors attributed to the failure of the much-hyped initiative.

“Controlling drug trafficking is a massive challenge for the police. The Assam Police launched a drive against it some time back and seems to have achieved some success. But such success might have touched the tip of the iceberg in the whole ecosystem of drug business in the North East,” said former Assam Director General of Police Harekrishna Deka.

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Coordination needed

Stating that the war against drugs would be a long process and require cooperative action by all states in the region, the former police chief observed that the alleged Involvement of political elements in Manipur seems to be complicating the drug situation.

The suspicion of nexus deepened when a senior Manipur Police officer made an explosive claim in an affidavit to the court barely a few months after the launch of the war against drugs in the state.

Then additional superintendent of police in the Narcotics and Affairs of Border Bureau, Thounaojam Brinda, accused a close companion of the then chief minister of having connections to an alleged drug lord. The Manipur government, however, denied the allegation.

Biren Singh

Former Chief Minister N Biren Singh's name was also dragged for his 2019 meeting with Dr Reza Borhani (50), an Australian citizen, barely a couple of months before the latter was arrested with Rs 1.8 crore worth of psychedelic drugs in Mumbai.

The chief minister’s office, in reply to media queries, had denied any link with Borhani and his Cannabis Health and Sciences Pvt Ltd (CHS).

Incidentally, Borhani has a North East connection. His wife is from Assam.

Also read: Man held with Rs 2.50 cr drugs, planned for Bengaluru New Year event

Extrajudicial killings

Some of the operational methods in the fight against drugs, particularly in Assam, have also raised eyebrows.

Between 2021 and 2025, 68 people were killed and 188 people were injured in the crackdown against drugs amidst allegations of extrajudicial killings.

During the same period, the Assam Police arrested 16,721 individuals. However, many were released on bail by courts due to insufficient evidence.

Huge backlog

The bail orders mostly resulted from the failure of forensic labs to produce timely reports on the seized substances. More than 1,500 cases are pending forensic results from the past year alone. This backlog has raised questions about the sincerity of the enforcement efforts.

Many individuals were arrested multiple times, suggesting a cycle of release and re-entry into the trade.

Golden Triangle

The region’s close proximity to the infamous Golden Triangle — a large, mountainous region covering Myanmar, Thailand and Laos — further makes it a transit route for smuggling drugs across India and beyond.

“While opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle remains high, synthetic drug production has grown steadily and the illicit economy around online casinos and scam centres is expanding rapidly. Decisive action is needed to avoid the situation getting out of hand,” the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported in its latest Myanmar opium survey report.

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Myanmar and Chin State

“The amount of opium produced in Myanmar remains close to the highest levels we have seen since we first measured it more than 20 years ago,” the UNODC report said. “As conflict dynamics in the country remain intense and the global supply chains adjust to the ban in Afghanistan, we see significant risk of a further expansion over the coming years.”

The greater concern for India is that the Chin State, with which the country shares a border, witnessed the “most significant increase” of 18 per cent in poppy cultivation in 2024, according to the UNODC.

After the Taliban banned poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2022, Myanmar has become the world leader in illicit opium production, said the report. Opium output in Afghanistan saw a drastic 95 per cent decrease in 2023 while Myanmar witnessed a 36 per cent increase during the same period.

Smuggling routes

Drugs come to India mostly from Myanmar’s Kalaw in Shan and Tiddim in Chin State, a senior official attached to a border guarding force told The Federal.

He said the primary entry points to India in the trafficking routes are (i) Moreh in Manipur via Tamu in Sagaing region of Myanmar; (ii) Zokhawthar in Champhai district of Mizoram though Rikhawdar in Chin State; and (iii) Homalin across the Chindwin River in Sagaing region. Crossing the river, the traffickers enter either Arunachal Pradesh or Nagaland.

The bordering town of Vijaynagar in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh emerged as a new entry point for smuggling drugs to the North East, the official said.

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Complicity of officials

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) inquiries also pointed towards complicity of some within the Indian security establishments posted in the region, sources said.

From Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, the drugs further travel to Assam and from there to West Bengal.

Malda, Murshidabad, and Kolkata in West Bengal are the three transit hubs to send drugs to the rest of India, the official added.

Centre’s plan of action

To address the problem, the Centre on March 18 formulated the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) for sustained and coordinated action.

A four-tier Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism for ensuring better coordination between Central and state drug law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders in the field of controlling drug trafficking and drug abuse in India has been established, official sources said.

Meiteis' note to CMs

The Coordination Committee of Manipur Unity, an umbrella organisation of civil society groups representing Meitei community, had in a memorandum to all chief ministers of North East urged setting up of a dedicated anti-narcotic bureau.

Further, a dedicated anti-narcotics task force headed by an additional director general or inspector general level police officer has been established in each state and union territory for effective coordination between various agencies and states.

Also read: Mangaluru police bust state's biggest drug cartel, arrest two South Africans

A long haul

Despite such efforts, the fight will not be easy.

“This is an international trade, and Assam, along with the North East, is merely a market. It is part of a larger narco-terrorism strategy aimed at destroying our youth and destabilizing the economy by fuelling black money. An enemy nation is behind this, and as tensions escalate, the focus on this strategy has intensified,” said GM Srivastava, a retired IPS officer and former DGP of Assam.

“Sealing the border is not as simple as it sounds. It’s easy to suggest but difficult to implement. There are numerous small, unmapped routes in border villages that traffickers exploit. Without raising awareness within society, controlling this menace will remain a challenge," he added.