Chinese gold, Myanmar ‘supari’ take old ‘AK-47 route’ to Mizoram, Manipur

The north-east region has become the favourite route of smugglers to transport things from Myanmar and China into India. On an average 44 people lose their lives every year due to drug abuse in Mizoram. How the smuggled items are being safely transported into India and how the mafia has been able to delve deep into the Indian market explains senior journalist Sanjib Kr Baruah.

New Delhi: The scourge of the COVID 19 pandemic may have stopped the country on its tracks ever since the announcement of the nationwide lockdown from March 24, 2020, but some things never stopped—like the incessant smuggling of Chinese gold from Myanmar or the smuggling of dried betel nut (supari) or deadly drugs and opiates.

Last week, a trader posing as a former paramilitary trooper tried to sway the Director-General, Assam Rifles, to allow trucks to pass through border check posts in Mizoram. “After interaction with the DG on video phone, the individual in a state of panic left behind a packet with gold jewellery which was promptly reported to the agencies,” said a security official with knowledge of the incident.

According to figures furnished by Assam Rifles, smuggled items including ‘supari’, heroin, banned tablets, etc just in Mizoram alone yielded a net value of more than Rs 50 crore if counted from March 2020 onwards or from the time of the lockdown while 39 Myanmar nationals and 96 drug peddlers were nabbed during the period.

Just from the Myanmar-Mizoram border, the Assam Rifles has confiscated more than 800 kg gold in the last two years. If the commonly held belief dictates that only 5-10 per cent of smuggled gold gets confiscated, the gold smuggling racket just in Mizoram would be worth between 4,000-8,000 kg.

With a 250-year-old legacy, Assam Rifles is a paramilitary force dedicated to guard the India-Myanmar border.

Till a few years ago, the porous and heavily-forested India-Myanmar international border straddling Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram were infamous as a favoured route for movement of deadly weapons like the AK-47 and M-16 assault guns to meet the demand of the Northeast region’s numerous armed insurgencies.

Not anymore. Besides drugs produced in clandestine factories of Myanmar, it is high-quality gold from the mines of China and dried betel nut or ‘supari’ from Myanmar that is making inroads into the NE region which is then transported to major cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru where the demand is much higher and therefore, the profits much bigger.

“Demand for illicit weapons has dampened in the NE as insurgency movements have greatly waned in activity and importance. Whatever remains of the weapons smuggling has shifted north towards Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland while contraband gold of Chinese origin rules in the Manipur and Mizoram border especially through Moreh (Chandel, Manipur) and Zokhawtar (Champhai, Mizoram). Besides drugs, smugglers have turned their attention to gold and ‘supari’ now which are much more lucrative,” the security official told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity.

With about 11 per cent of the total production, China is the world’s biggest producer of gold while India is the world’s second-largest consumer with the demand for gold far outstripping its supply. One of China’s main gold mining belt is in the Yunnan province which borders Myanmar and not very far from the Indian borders.

Mizoram is the best bet for smugglers because it shares long and porous borders with Myanmar in the east and Bangladesh in the west.

What encourages the smuggling of the Chinese gold into the NE is its easy availability in Myanmar where it is much cheaper than in India. Gold legally brought into India attracts 10 per cent customs duty and 3 per cent GST.

DRIED BETEL NUT

With taxes on ‘supari’ imports being pegged at an impossible 300 per cent so as to protect local production, a multinational betel nut smuggling network is active in Mizoram. “Dried betel nut trafficked through Mizoram has an annual turnover of Rs 3,500 crore,” said the official.

DRUGS

According to the official, from 1984 onwards, an average of 44 people lost their lives every year due to drug abuse in Mizoram. One of the main drugs is the infamous ‘yaba’ tablet which is manufactured in the Wa state of Myanmar.

“In 2019 alone, 54 people have died. Drugs have hollowed out the youth of the state either directly through consumption or indirectly through thefts, robberies and crimes. A total of 3,254 people were arrested in 2019 on drug-related charges,” said the official.

KHUDENGTHABI OUTPOST (TENGNOUPAL, MANIPUR)

Just to give an idea, the Assam Rifles-manned sensitive Khudengthabi outpost near the Myanmar border on the road from Moreh to Imphal holds the notorious record for the most number of seizures of illegal trade and contrabands in a given stretch of 40 km anywhere in India by any state or central law enforcement agency.

To keep the highway sanitized in the backdrop of incessant smuggling, the security checks and frisks about 300 vehicles and 2,000 commuters on a daily basis.

“There were 125 incidents in 2019, during which contraband and warlike stores worth Rs 500 crore were recovered by the Assam Rifles,” said the official.