Mobile heroin lab busted in Manipur

Equipment and opium seized from the mobile heroin processing unit at Lilong.

Imphal, Apr 3 : Narcotics Control Bureau sleuths have busted a mobile heroin processing unit on the Imphal West-Thoubal districts border, arrested four persons and recovered 1kg of the drug, a year after the presence of such units came to light in Manipur.

The sleuths seized all the equipment in the laboratory along with 7kg of opium and a large quantity of morphine ready for making heroin.

Officials at the bureau’s Imphal office today said with help from the Assam Rifles, they had zeroed in on a mobile laboratory set up at a makeshift hut on a riverbank at Lilong, on the border of Imphal West and Thoubal districts on the night of March 30.

A local youth club of the area extended help in locating the laboratory.

The seized equipment include plastic tubs, mugs, lime bags, one wooden pressing machine and camouflage clothing.

Preliminary interrogation of the arrested persons revealed that the mobile unit produced about 4kg of heroin powder before it was busted.

“Two consignments of heroin processed by this mobile unit were taken to Lucknow via Guwahati for further refining before being sold in India and abroad. Each consignment weighs between 1kg and 2kg,” an official of the NCB said.

He said some amount of the drugs processed by the unit, which is one of several such mobile laboratories in Manipur, was sold in Manipur itself.

“We are trying to identify the link between this unit and international drugs syndicates,” the official said.

NCB officials believe that the drug smugglers had learnt the heroin processing craft while visiting similar laboratories either in neighbouring Myanmar or other countries.

Manipur is close to the Golden Triangle and large quantities of heroin manufactured in the triangle are smuggled to India through Manipur’s border township of Moreh.

Officials estimate that 20-30kg of heroin comes to Manipur annually from Myanmar.

Each kilogram of heroin, which is sold at Moreh for Rs 12 lakh, fetches more than Rs 1 crore in the international market. The heroin processed in Manipur, however, is sold for Rs 5 lakh a kg in the state.

The mobile units have been able to come up because of extensive cultivation of poppy in the state’s hills, especially in Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Chandel and Senapati districts.

Opium and a chemical called acetic anhydride are used to process heroin.

While the chemical is used as a preservative in any laboratory and is easily available, the opium from the state’s poppy farms is also readily available, making it easy for such mobile laboratories to procure the raw materials and produce heroin.

Intelligence inputs suggest that China-based smugglers are funding the poppy cultivation in the state.

This year, bureau officials destroyed poppy cultivation across more than 1,250 acres in Churachandpur district alone.

The four arrested persons have been identified as Md Ziaur Rahman, Yaiya Khan, Md Nurdin and Md Munir Khan in the age group of 27 to 30. They are now in jail.