New Delhi: An alleged international drug syndicate with links across India, Myanmar and Bangladesh has been busted following a major multi-state operation in the Northeast, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.
Codename ‘Operation Trident’, the crackdown was carried out on October 23 through simultaneous searches at 38 premises in Assam, Mizoram and Manipur. It resulted in the arrest of 18 persons, freezing of 1,424 bank accounts and detection of hawala transactions amounting to Rs 100 crore, the Home Minister said in a post on X.
He said properties worth Rs 17.82 crore were attached, 500 detonators were seized and Rs 12 lakh in cash was recovered.
“Central agencies and police forces in the three northeastern states had carried out simultaneous operations to dismantle the international drug trafficking network and expose its financial links,” Shah said.
Action Against Drug Networks
According to Shah, the syndicate used a route connecting India, Myanmar and Bangladesh to smuggle drugs. He called it the “Death Triangle Corridor”.
The government has set a target to eliminate drug trafficking networks by December 31, 2029. Shah said agencies would continue action against drug cartels until their networks were fully broken, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The operation comes at a time when synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine, are entering India through the Northeast from Myanmar. At a meeting of BIMSTEC home ministers on October 13, Shah had rejected the term “Golden Triangle” for the drug-producing region of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. He called it the “Death Triangle” instead.
The Narcotics Control Bureau’s 2025 report said the Golden Triangle was the main source of methamphetamine entering India through the Northeast. Mizoram accounted for nearly 42 per cent of seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants, followed by Manipur and Delhi.
Myanmar has become the world’s largest illicit opium producer after Afghanistan banned poppy cultivation in 2022. The government has also started fencing the India-Myanmar border to stop illegal movement and drug smuggling.