Guwahati: Troopers of the Assam Rifles on Wednesday foiled a cross-border smuggling bid of areca nuts in Manipur’s Kamjong district bordering Myanmar.
Based on reliable input about the movement of contraband items along the Indo-Myanmar international border, a team of Assam Rifles launched an operation to prevent the smuggling attempt.
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Accordingly, the team of Assam Rifles intercepted seven Shaktiman trucks at Phaikoh village in the district which entered India through the international border.
During a thorough search of the trucks, the team of Assam Rifles recovered a staggering 760 bags of areca nuts estimated to be around Rs. 9.12 crore in the international market.
The Assam Rifles team later handed over the seized consignment of areca nuts along with the seven trucks to the Kamjong forest department for further legal proceedings.
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Smuggling of areca nuts, especially Burmese areca nuts, is quite rampant in Manipur which shares international borders with Myanmar.
These smuggled areca nuts often make their way to the state through the porous Indo-Myanmar international borders and then transported further to different parts of the country.
These smuggled areca nuts are first brought to Manipur from Myanmar in trucks and then transported to either neighbouring Nagaland’s Dimapur or Assam to be further transshipped to their final destination in other parts of the country.
Areca nuts are chewed across South Asia even though it affects one’s health severely. In the year 2021, a high-level probe was ordered in India into the smuggling of areca nuts from its neighbouring countries.