The ED launched Operation Trident, freezing 1,424 accounts and seizing assets worth Rs 17.82 crore to dismantle a major cross-border narco-hawala network operating between Mizoram, Manipur, and Myanmar to fund illegal drug trafficking.
ED Launches Operation Trident Against Narco-Hawala Networks
Under multiple-agency 'Operation Trident', the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen 1,424 bank accounts connected to narco-trade and narco-hawala operators in Mizoram and Manipur, arrested six persons and provisionally attached properties worth Rs 17.82 crore belonging to narco-hawala operators based in Mizoram. The action was part of a joint operation carried out by the ED's Aizawl and Imphal sub-zonal offices in coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Mizoram Police on October 23.
ED's search operation was conducted under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) at multiple premises in Aizawl, Champhai and Lawngtlai (Mizoram) and Churachandpur (Manipur) in three cases of money laundering arising from cross-border trafficking of heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets from Myanmar and the hawala settlement of the drug proceeds. Besides the ED, parallel action was carried out by the NCB and state police forces jointly at 38 locations in Assam, Mizoram and Manipur against the internation narcotics trafficking network on the same day. ED had earlier secured assets worth Rs 8.19 crore in the form of freezed bank accounts, taking the total assets secured to over Rs 26 crore.
Legal Actions and Arrests
Six accused persons were arrested under Section 19 of PMLA during the searches-- three each from Mizoram and Manipur. Production-for-arrest applications against four more accused, presently in judicial custody in narcotics cases, are being processed before the Special Court in Mizoram, the ED said. ED initiated investigations in three cases on the basis of FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
Breakdown of Money Laundering Cases
An Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) arises from the seizure of 4.722 kg of heroin (440 soap cases) by Zokhawthar Police, Champhai, on March 14, 2025, being carried from Zokhawthar to Aizawl for a Myanmar-based supplier. Another ECIR arises from the seizure of 49.101 kg of methamphetamine tablets and 40 grams of heroin by the NCB, Agartala, from a convoy on NH-06A near Seling in Mizoram on August 21, 2025, sourced from Chintuang of Myanmar for delivery at the Damchhera-Kanhmun border. However, the third ECIR arises from the seizure of 2.413 kg of brown sugar and cash of Rs 31.43 lakh by Churachandpur Police in Manipur on July 2 this year. In the case, the cash was sale proceeds of drugs supplied from Myanmar, collected at Churachandpur for remittance to the suppliers.
The Cross-Border 'Death Triangle' Ecosystem
ED said its investigation in the three cases has exposed one interconnected narco-hawala ecosystem in which the same set of bank accounts in Champhai, Aizawl and Lawngtlai receive drug money generated in Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura and settle it with suppliers in Myanmar. The North-East, sharing a 1,643 km porous border with Myanmar, has emerged as the principal land corridor for drugs produced in the Golden Triangle, which India now terms the 'Death Triangle'. Officials said that Heroin and methamphetamine tablets entering Mizoram and Manipur are consumed locally and moved onward through Assam to the rest of India and Bangladesh, and the drug money generated across this chain flows back to the border towns of Mizoram for settlement with the Myanmar-based suppliers.
Chemical Supply and Money Trail
"The trafficking corridor works as a two-way street through the Champhai–Zokhawthar sector of Mizoram. In one direction, precursor and cutting chemicals move from India to Myanmar: Krishiv Enterprises dispatched about 32 tonnes of Caffeine Anhydrous in 15 consignments between March and November 2024, besides 10 tonnes of Aluminium Chloride Anhydrous, on regular E-way bills and GST invoices to small retail pharmacies and a general store in Aizawl and the border belt of Mizoram that have no manufacturing or processing facility of their own. From these front consignees, the chemicals are moved onward across the border to the tablet-pressing units in Myanmar, where Caffeine Anhydrous is used to bulk and cut methamphetamine into the "Yaba" tablets," said the ED.
In the other direction, the federal agency pointed out that the finished heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets produced in Myanmar are carried across the Tiau River at Zokhawthar, the border crossing opposite Khawmawi in Myanmar, and staged at Champhai, from where they travel down the Champhai–Aizawl road and NH-06A to Aizawl, Vairengte and the Assam and Tripura borders. Myanmar-based organisers such as Runthanchhungi alias Nu Sungi and Chintuang hire local carriers in Zokhawthar and Champhai, move consignments concealed in soap cases, taxis, motorcycles and truck convoys with escort vehicles, and are paid through the same Champhai hawala accounts that receive the drug money from across the North-East, so that the chemical supply, the drug flow and the money trail all converge on the Champhai–Zokhawthar corridor.
"That money trail begins far from Champhai. The drugs that leave the corridor are sold for cash across Manipur, Assam, Tripura and in other parts of India, with the cash moved through hawala, and the sale proceeds have to be gathered up and sent back to the suppliers in Myanmar," said the agency. In the Churachandpur sector of Manipur, it said, this cash was collected by syndicate operatives such as Nengzatuan Valte alias Tuanpi and handed to cash handlers like Zenngaihniang alias Taniang, from whose hands it entered the banking system through mini-ATM and customer service point counters. Taniang delivered up to Rs 1 crore per day at Go Alpha Trip, a mini-ATM and money-transfer counter in Churachandpur run by one H Gouzalal, along with a list of beneficiary accounts, said the ED.
"Recording her under the code name “NUNIANG”, the counter made 2,947 transfers aggregating Rs 175.03 crore between 2024 and June 2026 to traders, pharmacies and individuals in Zokhawthar, Champhai, Lawngtlai and Aizawl, routing part of the money through other Churachandpur counters and front entities to break the trail," stated the agency. The beneficiary pharmacies, general stores and individuals in Mizoram, who rented their accounts for Rs 500 per lakh, passed the money on within days by RTGS/NEFT/IMPS with negligible cash withdrawal and no underlying trade. Of Rs 11.98 crore received in seven accounts analysed, the ED said, only Rs 17 lakh was withdrawn in cash. "The account of a Champhai homemaker, operated by her bank-employee husband, alone received Rs. 15.48 Crore against a family income of about Rs 27,000 per month."
The layered funds finally reach unlicensed Rupee-Kyat exchangers in Champhai, chiefly Lalrampari and her husband Lalliansanga (Proprietor of JTS Store), whose accounts recorded credits of about Rs 268.80 crore, including Rs 125 crore in cash from Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, Tripura and Delhi, it said. Significantly, the drug money reaching the hawala accounts in Aizawl and Champhai did not come from the North-East alone. The accounts received substantial funds from New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, including about Rs 2.14 crore received by hawala operator Lalrinkima from shell entities based in Kolkata and Rs. 10 lakh received by Taniang from a Howrah-based shell company, besides cash deposited at Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Silchar into accounts of Champhai-based operators, indicating that proceeds of drugs sold in the metropolitan cities were being routed back to the border through layered corporate and hawala channels.
On instructions from Myanmar-based persons, the agency said they transferred the money to accounts across India and settled the suppliers’ dues in Kyat across the border for a commission of Rs 250-500 per lakh. "The proceeds were integrated into real estate and businesses, including Hotel JTS, a five-storey commercial building at Zion Veng, Champhai, built out of funds routed through the hawala accounts. Searches covered the premises of hawala operators, mule-account holders, front businesses and the Mini-ATM counter in Champhai, Aizawl, Lawngtlai and Churachandpur, and bank branches holding the key accounts. Incriminating ledgers of cash received and transfers made, cheque books, debit cards, mobile phones and digital devices used to operate the accounts were seized."
Account holders admitted that their accounts were rented to suspected narco-hawala operators for Rs 500 per lakh, it said. The ledgers of Go Alpha Trip in Churachandpur, ED said, matched the credits in the Mizoram accounts under investigation in the two Aizawl cases - Thangkhuala and his wife (Rs 2.22 crore), Zuali Drugs Store (Rs 2.67 crore), Fung Than Kimi (Rs 2.05 crore), Lalbiakhluna Lalduhawma (Rs 1.82 crore) and Lalrampari- establishing that the drug cash collected in Manipur was being settled through the same Champhai hawala accounts that service the heroin and methamphetamine networks of Mizoram.
Arrests and Future Investigations
Those arrested are identified as Kashyap G. Thakkar; Thangkhuala, Champhai; T Chatuan Vanlalgakha; Zenngaihniang alias Taniang; Nengzatuan Valte alias Tuanpi and H Gouzalal. Taniang and Tuanpi, already in judicial custody in the NDPS cases, were formally arrested with the permission of the Special Judge, ND&PS, Churachandpur. The arrested persons are being produced before the jurisdictional Special Courts (PMLA). Production-for-arrest applications against four more accused are being processed before the Special Court in Mizoram. The 1,424 bank accounts that have been frozen in the operation link to narco-trade and narco-hawala operators and their mule and beneficiary accounts in Mizoram and Manipur.
By a provisional attachment order dated October 23, ED attached Hotel JTS, a five-storey commercial building with 571.11 sq. m. of land at Zion Veng in Champhai, standing in the name of Lalliansanga, husband of hawala operator Lalrampari, valued at Rs 17.82 crore. With Rs. 8.19 crore secured earlier in the form of bank accounts involved in Narco-Hawala activities, total assets secured in the case now exceed Rs 26 crore. ED further said its investigation is in progress to identify the other customers of the Churachandpur cluster of Mini ATMs/CSPs, the beneficiary account operators, the Myanmar-based recipients and the end users of the chemicals, to examine the role of bank officials and CSP operators, and to trace and attach further proceeds of crime. (ANI)
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