Cops bank on canine patrol to cleanse drug route

Dog squads are to be deployed in all NH 39 checkpoints on the Assam side to sniff out the huge consignments of drugs that are ferried through this route to destinations across the country.

A senior police officer said drug cartels operating in Myanmar, Laos and Thailand — the infamous Golden Triangle — were regularly pushing in consignments through the porous border in Moreh. “Our men are not adequately trained to detect drugs hidden in secret cabinets of vehicles. We are banking on the dogs to sniff these out,” he added.

Intelligence reports say drugs from Myanmar also find their way to Assam from Tirap in Arunachal Pradesh. Some drug cartels are known to have set up manufacturing facilities in the mountains just across the border.

The United Nations Drug Control Programme and the International Narcotics Control Board have both warned that the entire Northeast would become a haven for drug dealers if the smuggling routes were not sanitised immediately.

A few weeks ago, the police seized a consignment of brown sugar from three persons at a checkpoint near Nambar forest reserve, located along the Golaghat stretch of NH 39. The trio was in a Maruti van that the police stopped for routine checking. They were on their way from Dimapur, in Nagaland, to an Upper Assam town.

Apart from increasing vigil on smuggling routes, the police are continuing a crackdown on drug users and peddlers. Several of them have been booked in Upper Assam lately for either selling or using banned drugs. The police have also been organising seminars and workshops to motivate youths into joining the crusade against drugs.

The deputy inspector-general of police (eastern range), Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, said personnel posted in the checkpoints along NH 39 had been asked not to let vehicles enter Assam from Nagaland without a thorough check.

Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland, has already earned the dubious distinction of being the crime capital of the Northeast and a thriving market for drugs.

“Not only drugs, Dimapur are the biggest market for stolen cars. Women traffickers and arms smugglers too frequent the town,” Mahanta said.

He said the crime syndicate could envelop the Assam districts bordering Nagaland if preventive steps were not taken soon. “Jorhat, Sivasagar and Golaghat districts are sitting on a volcano. We cannot remain complacent.”