India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen 1,424 bank accounts and attached properties valued at approximately Rs178.2 million as part of a large-scale crackdown on a cross-border drug trafficking and money laundering network linked to Myanmar. The operation, conducted on October 23, targeted multiple locations in the northeastern states of Mizoram, Manipur, and Assam.
The enforcement action, dubbed Operation Trident, was carried out jointly by the ED, the Narcotics Control Bureau, and local police forces. It uncovered a sprawling narco-hawala network that allegedly managed the flow of hundreds of millions of rupees through various channels, including bank accounts, pharmacies, money transfer counters, and shell companies. The crackdown also followed the provisional attachment of properties worth Rs178.2 million, adding to a total of more than Rs260 million in assets secured across three ongoing money laundering cases.
Authorities arrested six individuals and are pursuing the arrest of four others currently in judicial custody. Investigators revealed that drugs smuggled from Myanmar were distributed across Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, and Tripura before reaching other parts of India and Bangladesh. The proceeds from these sales were reportedly transferred back to Myanmar-based suppliers via hawala operators and multiple bank accounts.
The ED also reported that chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine tablets were moved from India into Myanmar, while finished narcotics were transported in the opposite direction. One company allegedly dispatched about 32 tonnes of caffeine anhydrous and 10 tonnes of aluminium chloride anhydrous to small businesses in Mizoram that lacked drug manufacturing facilities, with the chemicals subsequently smuggled across the border for use in illicit drug production.
A key element of the network involved a Mini-ATM and money-transfer counter operating under the name Go Alpha Trip in Churachandpur, Manipur. Between 2024 and June 2026, this counter reportedly processed 2,947 transfers amounting to Rs1.75 billion. A suspected syndicate member purportedly delivered up to Rs10 million daily along with lists of beneficiary accounts. These funds were routed to traders, pharmacies, and individuals in Mizoram, many of whom allegedly rented their bank accounts to hawala operators at a rate of Rs500 per Rs100,000.
In one notable case, a homemaker’s bank account, despite her family's modest monthly income of about Rs27,000, received Rs154.8 million. Investigators also traced financial flows originating from major Indian cities such as New Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai, indicating the routing of drug sale proceeds from urban centers back to the Myanmar border region.
Further scrutiny revealed accounts linked to two suspected currency exchangers in Chhampai recorded credits totaling approximately Rs2.69 billion, including Rs1.25 billion in cash transactions. The coordinated operation has highlighted the complex and extensive nature of transnational drug trafficking and money laundering activities in the region.