New Delhi/Aizawl: The Enforcement Directorate Thursday conducted maiden searches along the India-Myanmar border in Mizoram, apart from some places in Assam and Gujarat, in a drugs trafficking linked money laundering case, officials said.
The federal probe agency also seized Rs 35 lakh cash apart from some digital devices.
Locations across Aizawl and Champhai in Mizoram, Sribhumi (Karimganj) in Assam and Ahmedabad in Gujarat are being searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA, they said.
The probe stems from a Mizoram Police FIR into the seizure of 4.72 kgs of heroin worth Rs 1.41 crore from six people.
These are the first searches conducted by the agency along the India-Myanmar border (Champhai), the ED officials said.
India shares a 1,643 km-long front with Myanmar on its eastern side.
The agency undertook a financial analysis of the arrested persons and found “financial linkages” between some firms located in Mizoram and certain Gujarat-based companies.
The Gujarat firms supplied Pseudoephedrine tablets and Caffeine Anhydrous (precursor used in manufacturing of Methamphetamine tablets) to the Mizoram-based firms that allegedly had links to drug smugglers who carry out smuggling and hawala transactions through habitual offenders operating in Champhai, the officials said.
Certain financial transactions of the Mizoram entities were also found with certain Kolkata-based shell (dummy) companies, which had procured the said consignment of Caffeine Anhydrous, they said.
Officials said the precursor chemicals used in the production of Methamphetamine are transported from India to Myanmar through the “porous” international border, where they are manufactured, and the final products are transported from Myanmar to India mainly through Mizoram.
Deposits worth Rs 52.8 crore were detected in the bank accounts of narco-hawala operators, including cash deposits in Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, West Bengal, Tripura and Delhi, as per the agency’s analysis.
The agency is questioning some hawala operators during the searches during the raids, they said.
