Northeast India sandwiched between chemical supplying country and drug producing golden triangle

Our Reporter
Dimapur, June 27 (EMN): Nagaland, along with north-eastern states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Manipur, is among the top 10 states in India with highest percentage of population affected by drug abuse, said Lunkholal, Intelligence Officer, NCB, Zonal, Guwahati on Monday.

Speaking at the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking programme held in Excise department conference hall, Dimapur, he Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram have highest prevalence of sedative use, while Manipur and Nagaland are among the top 10 states with highest number of people who inject drugs, and states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram have more than 10% prevalence of opioid use.

Lunkholal stated that India’s complex drug problem was due to its proximity to the two largest illicit drugs producing regions in the world, being flanked by the Golden Crescent in the West and by the Golden Triangle in the East.

“These two regions account for more than 90% of the world’s main opium heroin production,” he informed.

“India shares a 16+3 km long border with Myanmar and India is the largest manufacturer and exporter of precursor chemicals like ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, acetic, and others that are used in the manufacture of narcotics and psychotropic substances. Northeast India is thus sandwiched between a precursor chemical supplying country and the drug producing Golden triangle,” he added.

‘India is the source for all supplies of heroin, meth and codeine-based cough syrup to Bangladesh and NE acts as the trafficking corridor between these two countries; and Moreh, Champhai and Guwahati have become the nucleus of drug trafficking industry in NE,’ he continued.

Sharing about the drug trafficking trends in NE, he stated that there is increased trafficking of the synthetic drugs, ATS, and heroin from Myanmar, existence of clandestine morphine labs, preference for poppy cultivation over ganja, insurgents charging protection money for illicit crop cultivation, huge demand of CBCS and huge receiver network in Bangladesh.

On drug scenario in Nagaland, Lunkholal said the state serves as a transit route for trafficking of drugs such as morphine opium and brown sugar from Manipur and Myanmar. Heroin methamphetamine is smuggled into the region from Myanmar-Manipur for further trafficking to other parts of India, and the main transit point in Nagaland is Dimapur, he informed.

He shared that cannabis from Manipur are also being trafficked through Kohima-Dimapur to other states using rail route. Some of the emerging trends and challenges in drug trafficking are porous international border facilitated by Indo-Myanmar friendly relationships, use of modern technology, and darknet, he informed.

Measures to curb the menace

Lunkholal said that dismantling of trafficking networks in the region requires ramping up of the capacities of drug law enforcement agencies (DLEAs), and improved and effective coordination between central agencies, state and trans-national governments in the region.

He also pointed out the need to set up a well co-ordinated inter-state intelligence network within the DLEAs of NE states to tackle the well co-ordinated narcotics trafficking into the region from the golden triangle.

Secretary to the government of Nagaland, Excise and Prohibition department, Kevekha Kevin Zehol, emphasised on the role of NGOs in tackling drug abuse and illicit trafficking issue, saying that organisations approach them at a personal level more than the police or Excise department.

“Today, we need a concerted effort from police and various para-militaries; and everyone have to work out the strategies and there should be intelligence sharing so that all these activities are not a threat to the society,” he said.

“We need to sensitise our young people and not simply condemn them,” he concluded.

H Atokhe Aye, Commissioner of Excise and Prohibition, declared the pledge, and a special number was also performed by Prodigal’s Home IRCA.