Huge cache of narcotics drugs recovered
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, August 27 2011:
Soldiers of 31 Assam Rifles based on a tip off recovered a huge cache of narcotic drugs from two individuals in Manipur's border town-Moreh,110 km south of here on Friday.
"The incident occurred around 9 am and recovered drugs is about 300 kg of Pseudo-ephedrine tablets valued around Rs 5 crores in the open market", Assam Rifles sources here said.
"We've recovered around 700 kg of Pseudo-ephedrine based drugs besides about 500 kgs of tiger bones and pangol shells in the current year" .
Two drug peddlers- Jacob of Moreh ward number 1 and a Myanmarese Jothan Mawia alias Moya of Tamu township who were arrested from a house in the ward number 1 of the border town along with the recovered items have been handed over to Manipur Police Narcotics department for further action.
In the last one year, Assam Rifles troops which had been guarding Manipur sector of the Indo-Myanmar International border has recovered as many as 1132 kgs of pangolin shells including 15 kgs of tiger bones and 19 kgs of leopard bones besides their skulls(tigers-1,leopard-5)and skins(tiger-4.5kg,leopard-13kgs) along with 14 Deer horns.
The frequent seizure of the wildlife products in Manipur indicates that the Indo-Myanmar route in Manipur appears to have become one of the main transit points for smugglers to transport wildlife products to china and other South Asian countries.
According to a senior Manipur forest official,most of these wildlife products were used for manufacturing medicine in China.The wildlife products were mostly transported from places such as Rajasthan,Orissa and Andhra Pradhesh.
Pangolin shell costs Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per kg at Moreh town.