The prospect of huge and easy money from illicit drugs has lured many traffickers from across India to the country’s northeastern state of Manipur.
As many as 115 people from 14 states in the country were arrested in Manipur between 2007 and 2023 on charges related to drug trafficking (out of a total of 3,627). Forty-two percent of those arrested from outside Manipur were from its neighboring state of Assam.
In addition to Assam, drug traffickers apprehended in Manipur were hailed from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, New Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.
These findings were part of a research study titled “Facets of drug trafficking in Manipur, a border state of India: volumes, ethnicity and value” by Hanjabam Isworchandra Sharma and Shukhdeba Sharma Hanjam that was published in the Journal of Money Laundering.
“These numbers are for the arrested only, and many more are involved who managed to escape or elude the police. This shows how many individuals have been lured to the state of Manipur for the drug business,” the study said. It “speaks volumes of the deep-rooted drug business in the state of Manipur,” and the way it “is spreading all over India.”
Concurring with this, an Assam government official told The Diplomat that the market for different types of narcotics is expanding in India. He referred to the cannabis grown and Brown Sugar manufactured in Manipur, and Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS) such as Yaba and World is Yours (WY) that come to Manipur from Myanmar and head to far-off destinations through multiple routes.
Seizures over the past many years reveal that there are several distribution centers along the routes from where the drugs are sent to different cities across the country. Officials said that Siliguri in West Bengal is an active hub not only for narcotics but also for other contraband items.
Sharma and Hanjam’s study revealed that heroin alone accounted for 46.19 percent of the total police complaints registered, followed by ATS, and medicated drugs and cannabis. They explained that heroin is imported from Myanmar and also manufactured in Manipur, as evidenced by the manufacturing units that have been unearthed in the past by government agencies.
Citing data from the Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB), the study says that poppy plants worth 902.34 million rupees ($12.03 million) were destroyed between 2018–2022. So far, 19,547.6 acres of the area growing poppy crops have been destroyed in Manipur. The eradication of poppy cultivation continues in the state.
The total monetary value of drugs seized and poppy plants destroyed was estimated at $19.88 million in 2022, which is roughly about 0.7 percent of the state’s total gross domestic product. “This is just the tip of the iceberg, as it is the value that is seized and destroyed by the government, and the actual value circulated in the economy will be huge, looking at the high consumption of illicit drugs, involvement of high-profile politicians, top-rank army and insurgent groups,” the study claimed.
Researchers are of the view that the value of the drug economy in Manipur could amount to 4.9 billion rupees ($62 million). The figure could be “underestimated as there may be many players involved in drug trafficking because of the abysmally low conviction rate.”
The Manipur government has declared a war on drugs with active support from the federal government. That the machinery needs to be strengthened for greater results can be gauged from the fact that only 2 percent of the accused were convicted in the 2007-2023 period, the study pointed out. As many as 47 percent of those arrested were subsequently released on bail, and another 40 percent are in judicial custody.
Besides, drug consignments have been seized outside Manipur at regular intervals, indicating the laxity in the surveillance mechanism in the region. Manipur’s border with Myanmar is porous, offering ample scope for cartels to traffic a range of contraband items, which also explains why the government has expedited the fencing project with a deadline.