The Enforcement Directorate has intensified its probe into a cross-border narco-hawala syndicate operating along the India-Myanmar frontier under Operation Trident, arresting four key operatives from Central Jail in Aizawl, Mizoram. The arrests follow extensive multi-agency coordinated searches across Mizoram and Manipur, which unmasked a complex cross-border financial pipeline used to move illicit narcotics capital. Investigators have uncovered handwritten cash books, transaction registers, and identification tokens documenting international money-laundering operations running into hundreds of millions of Myanmar kyat, while freezing 991 bank accounts tied to the network.
Custodial Arrests of Key Border Handlers
Officials from the ED Aizawl Sub-Zonal Office formally executed the arrests on October 30 under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The individuals taken into custody include Lalrammuana from Champhai, identified as the primary handler of drug consignments, and Myanmar national Thangcintuang, also known as Chintuang or Tluanga, from Bulfek village, who was the supplier of a 49.101-kilogram methamphetamine haul seized on August 21, 2025. The agency also arrested Assam residents Jabrul Haque, the intended recipient of border shipments, and Abu Saleh Md Saif Uddin, whose accounts handled 11.44 crore rupees, including 6.67 crore rupees in cash, to feed hawala nodes in Champhai. The four accused were already detained in Aizawl Central Jail under Narcotics Control Bureau cases, and were remanded to 48 hours of ED custody following production warrants issued by the Additional District and Sessions Judge-I, Aizawl, bringing the total arrests in the connected matters to ten.
Seizure of Cross-Border Financial Ledgers
A parallel search at the residence of Zenngaihniang, alias Taniang, in New Lamka, Churachandpur, on October 23 led to the recovery of detailed handwritten cash books and ledgers outlining currency exchange activities. The accounting records reveal a consistent flow of Indian rupees received through physical cash and bank transfers from various parts of the country. These funds were subsequently converted into Myanmar kyat at exchange rates varying between 42 and 48 kyat per rupee and disbursed to recipients across the border. Daily transaction entries reached as high as 54.47 lakh rupees, representing approximately 26 crore kyat, with cumulative entries surpassing 43 crore kyat. The ledgers noted payouts of 1.14 crore rupees to an individual handler within a single week in April 2025, alongside dollar conversions totaling 10,816 dollars and direct digital transfers via Myanmar mobile wallet platform KPay. Agency search teams also impounded seven signed 10-rupee currency notes suspected of functioning as hawala identification tokens, together with deeds for an immovable property worth 60 lakh rupees.
Trade-Based Diversion Through Goods for Drugs
Financial scrutiny into M/s Go Alpha Trip revealed that Taniang utilized mini-ATM retail operations to deposit over 175 crore rupees directly into the formal banking system. Instead of using cash transfers across the border, the syndicate deployed a goods-for-drugs mechanism to compensate suppliers in Myanmar. Drug proceeds deposited into Mizoram mule accounts were used to buy essential commodities, including flour from West Bengal, edible oil from Assam, wholesale groceries, medicines, textiles, footwear from Delhi, and fuel worth 2.61 crore rupees from filling stations in Mizoram. Invoices were generated in the names of third-party firms in Aizawl and border transit locations including Champhai, Zorinpui, and Tlabung before the actual physical cargo crossed into Myanmar. This arrangement allowed foreign drug cartels to be paid in merchandise, masking cross-border payments behind legitimate domestic GST documentation.
