Opium worth Rs 36 lakh seized from Burmese trader in Mizoram

Opium weighing 818 grams with a value of Rs 36 lakhs was seized from a Burmese trader by Mizoram authorities in northeast India on Wednesday.

Special branch police in the state capital of Aizawl were tipped off that the carrier was transporting drugs on the No. 2 Indo-Burma Trade Road to Aizawl. They seized the drugs in the Thuampui Block of Aizawl in the evening, reported Mizoram’s Aizawl Post.

The dealer has been identified as Lallianmawi, the son of Luankham, from Saihmun Village in Falam Township of Chin State. A case against Lallianmawi for trading in drugs was filed at the Bawngkawn Block Police Station of Aizawl.

The Mizoram Narcotics Department said the opium seized was a large haul.

Other Burmese traders have recently been detained for involvement in drug peddling and smuggling, including a Burmese man arrested with opium worth Rs 10 lahks by Mizoram authorities on February 15.

With the news of Burmese drug traders being caught in Mizoram, the people of the state have a growing resentment of the presence of Burmese settled in Mizoram as illegal refugees, said a Burmese youth in Mizoram.

"We (Burmese) people are always arrested in cases, so they (Mizo people) dislike us. It is worrying that our people are involved in incidents of drug trading, murder, theft, and alcohol production in the state.”

The Young Mizo Association, a large non-government organization, recorded last year that nearly 100,000 Burmese people are staying as refugees in the state without legal refugee status.