KHELEN THOKCHOM
Police seize a huge quantity of Manipuri ganja during a raid near Oriyagaon in Nagaon on Wednesday night. (PTI)
Imphal, June 10: Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Imphal office, are on full alert following intelligence reports that mobile heroin manufacturing laboratories are coming up in Manipur for the first time.
The intelligence input surfaced during a follow-up investigation after the seizure of pure ephedrine tablets worth Rs 120.8 crore from the office of a private courier service at Khoyathong in the heart of Imphal on June 5.
The bureau seized 12,15,800 tablets (15mg) from a Blazeflash courier service office and three persons were arrested the next day.
The three are now in judicial custody.
“During the investigation we got information that some individuals are planning to set up mobile heroin making laboratories in Manipur itself. So far we don’t know whether the laboratories are already in place or its only a plan. We are following the intelligence input,” NCB superintendent R.K. Ibungosana told The Telegraph.
The official said heroin could be processed easily inside a vehicle or a small room like a farmhouse using simple laboratory equipment like test tubes and spirit burners.
“This equipment can be folded up easily and those involved in the process can flee immediately on the slightest hint of enforcement agencies closing in on them,” the superintendent said.
The ingredient to process heroin is opium, which is produced in Manipur in huge quantities, and a liquid chemical called acetic anhydride. This liquid chemical is used as a preservative in many laboratories and available in Manipur.
The officials could not say whether any experts from heroin manufacturing countries like Myanmar were coming to Manipur to set up the laboratories or someone from within the state was providing the training.
“We are hoping to find some more inputs soon,” the superintendent said.
This is the first time pure ephedrine tablets were seized in Manipur.
The consignment was addressed to a fictitious medicine store and these were brought from Guwahati on a Jet Airways flight the same day.
NCB officials said the tablets were about to be smuggled out to Myanmar through Moreh the next day (June 6). The tablets came from Gujarat.
Ephedrine is a chemical substance used to make cough syrups. It is also an important ingredient for making amphetamines, commonly known as WY (world is yours), consumed by substance abusers.
Ephedrine is smuggled out to Myanmar and brought back to India through Moreh as amphetamine tablets in huge quantities, NCB officials said.
Manipur is one of the transit points of heroin smuggling, involving international syndicates and heroin manufactured in Myanmar and the Golden Triangle.
Officials at the Narcotics and Affairs of Border calculated that nearly 20kg to 30kg of heroin comes to the state from Myanmar each year before being transported to other parts of the country.
NCB officials in Imphal are investigating possible links between the seizure of 1,000 ephedrine tablets in Delhi by Delhi police and the Imphal seizure.
“We do not rule out the involvement of same gang in both the cases,” the NCB superintendent said.