Drugs, not flowers, are booming in Manipur’s borderlands
- The Indian Police Journal
- 69(2), Apr-Jun, 2022: p.133-143
In Moreh, Manipur, drug trafficking is common along the Myanmar border. The geographical features of Myanmar as part of Asia’s “Golden Triangle” and the significance of the state’s common border with Myanmar aided the expansion of illicit smuggling. Drug traffickers use the hilly borders and the sparsely scattered security personnel to carry out their modus operandi. In this context, the imminent “Trans Asian Highway” and Railway project connecting Imphal to Southeast Asia under India’s “Act East Policy” will exacerbate the issue. The number of smuggling cases intercepted by security officials on the Moreh route often exceeds crores of rupees. It includes heroin and synthetic narcotics. On the other hand, acetic anhydride and ephedrine were required to transform raw opium to heroin, transported from India via the Moreh Corridor. Systematic investigations are being carried out to determine the land routes that generate frequent drug trafficking instances at certain locations of major border crossroads. This study is part of a larger effort to highlight the problem of illegal drug smuggling along the Manipur-Mandalay land route. It calls for limiting proliferation to enhance political links between the two areas. This article describes how Manipur State has quickly become a drug trafficking hotspot as the smuggling activity transfers from Myanmar’s eastern border to the western route. With the implementation of the Act East Policy, new non-traditional security concerns have quickly emerged as a serious concern for policymakers. – Reproduced