Overview
- The DRI’s Guwahati unit seized about 60,000 kg of foreign‑origin areca nuts in operations in Assam and Mizoram this week and arrested five people, with initial probes pointing to smuggling from Myanmar via the Myanmar–Mizoram border.
- In two separate DRI Mumbai operations linked to passengers arriving from Addis Ababa, authorities recovered a total of 2.25 kg of cocaine by medical purging and arrested four foreign nationals after hospital procedures retrieved 84 capsules (1.40 kg) in one case and 63 capsules (850 g) in the other.
- On May 21 the Ministry of Finance said the DRI also intercepted roughly 300,000 electronic cigarettes and vapes valued at about Rs 120 crore at multiple ports, airports and inland container depots across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and West Bengal.
- The Guwahati operations were carried out with assistance from the 38 Battalion of the Assam Rifles, and officials say the coordinated intelligence‑led actions are part of a wider push to identify syndicate links and domestic operatives behind the contraband flows.
- Enforcement officials warn the illegal inflow of cheap foreign areca is hurting local growers by depressing prices and weakening border economic security, and investigators say follow‑on probes will assess market impact and aim to disrupt the trafficking chains.