Three men arrested, opium worth over ₹50 crore seized, as police apprehend Manipur-based cartel

Three residents of Manipur were arrested for allegedly trafficking opium sourced from the border areas of Myanmar, converting it to heroin in Manipur’s Thoubal, and supplying it to the Delhi-NCR area, police said

Three residents of Manipur were arrested for allegedly trafficking opium sourced from the border areas of Myanmar, converting it to heroin in Manipur’s Thoubal, and supplying it to the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) area, police said. Police recovered 10 kg of high-grade heroin worth over ₹50 crores in the international market from the arrested persons.

The accused have been identified as Mitralal Khatiwoda, 45, a resident of Kangpokpi in Manipur, Krishna Neopani, 21, a resident of Manipur’s Senapati, and Akash Karki, 25, a resident of Imphal West. The three men smuggled the consignment in a secret cavity inside the cabin of a commercial truck.

The police followed a tip-off regarding some Manipur-based drug traffickers indulging in the trade of high-grade heroin, which was being sold in parts of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. This input was further investigated through technical as well as manual surveillance. The operation took about four to five months to acquire the information. To gain further information about the syndicate, police teams visited several sites in West Bengal and Manipur to cultivate sources.

On January 23, police received information that Mitralal and Akash, would come around the Mangolpuri Industrial area in Delhi, to supply heroin. Accordingly, raids were conducted, and the three men were arrested just as the arrived at the spot in an e-rickshaw. When they were spotted and correctly identified by the informer, the raiding team swung into action and apprehended them. A case under relevant provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, was registered, police said.

“he arrested accused persons were thoroughly interrogated, and they disclosed that they were part of an interstate narcotics syndicate. Mitralal disclosed that he is an aide of a resident of Manipur and works as carrier to supply heroin along with Akash and Krishna who then further supply it to various locations all over India. They procured the opium from Myanmar’s border areas which he further processed/converted into the heroin and further supplied it to Thoubal, Manipur. Thereafter, the processed heroin was carried from Thoubal in Manipur to Dimapur in Nagaland via different carriers who used different modes of transport,” a senior police officer said.

The consignment also supplied in the area of Assam’s Guwahati from where it is transported to Siliguri in West Bengal. The carriers of the consignment adopt many techniques to hide heroin in their vehicles. Mitralal and his associates used a commercial truck with a secret cavity to store the heroin. The recovered heroin was to be supplied to one of their contacts in the area of Delhi/NCR, police officials said.