Assam Rifle, NCB chiefs discuss drug smuggling

New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) Assam Rifle Director General Lt Gen P.C. Nair on Tuesday met his Narcotics Control Bureau counterpart S.N. Pradhan here, officials said.Though the details of the meeting were not revealed, it was believed that both officials discussed ways to prevent the smuggling of drugs and psychotropic substances in the northeastern region.The smuggling of drugs and other psychotropic drugs has been rampant nowadays at Mizoram-Myanmar border.Recently, an Assam Rifle team has seized a huge quantity of poppy seeds in Mizoram after the contraband was illegally brought across the border. Poppy cultivation has also become rampant in the dense forests of a few northeastern states to produce narcotics.The NCB officials also said that the smuggling of the poppy seeds has become a major challenge for the state governments as well as for the Bureau.Opium poppy cultivation is prohibited under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act1985 but limited cultivation is allowed under a government license. "Smuggling of poppy seeds from neighbouring Myanmar is a new item in the rampant illegal trade in various drugs including heroin, opium, tablets and capsules including methamphetamine, marijuana, morphine, bottles of cough syrup," an NCB official said.Drug use and smuggling remain the biggest challenges for Mizoram, which shares the longest border with Myanmar among the four north-eastern states that border with the neighbouring country.Assam Rifles, a Central Armed Police Force under administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, provides security to the northeastern region and has a diversified role ranging from security to providing welfare, and developmental assistance to the people.
--IANS ams/vd

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