ED arrests four more in Operation Trident

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four more accused from Aizawl Central Jail and recovered extensive international hawala records during a search in Churachandpur, Manipur, as part of the ongoing probe into a cross-border narco-hawala network spanning Mizoram and Manipur under Operation Trident.

On Friday, the ED Aizawl Sub-Zonal Office arrested Lalrammuana from Champhai, Thangcintiung (Chintuang or Thunga) of Bulfek village, Myanmar, and Jabrul Haque from Sribhumi, Assam, under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, in the Jabrul Haque case. Police arrested Abu Saleh Md Saif Uddin from Karimganj, Assam, in the Krishiv Enterprise case.

All four are currently in Central Jail, Aizawl, in connection with the various NCB cases. They were produced before the Additional District and Sessions Judge-I, Aizawl, on production warrants. On October 29, 2026, the court formally arrested them and gave the ED 48 hours to question them.

Chintuang was identified as the Myanmar-based supplier of the 49.101 kg methamphetamine shipment seized on August 21, 2025. Lalrammuana acted as his main handler. Jabrul Haque was to receive the shipment at the Damchera-Kanmun border. Abu Saleh of Karimganj received Rs 11.44 crore in his accounts, including Rs 6.67 crore in cash, and transferred the funds into the Champhai hawala network. With these arrests, the total number of people arrested in the three related cases stands at 10.

On Friday, ED officers searched the residence of Zenngaihniang (Taniang) in New Lamka, Churachandpur. They recovered cash books, registers, and notebooks containing handwritten records of daily currency exchange and hawala transactions. The records indicated receipt of Indian rupees in cash and through bank accounts from various parts of India, which were converted daily at rates of 42 to 43 Kyat per rupee and paid out in Myanmar.

On certain days, records showed entries up to Rs 54.47 lakh, equivalent to about 26 crore Kyat, with totals exceeding 43 crore Kyat. One handler received Rs 1.14 crore in a single week in April 2025. The records also noted transfers via the Myanmar mobile wallet KPay and conversions to US dollars. Between April 2025 and February 2026, $10,816 was converted at a rate of 4,150 Kyat per dollar. Investigators also found seven signed Rs 10 notes, which they believe hawala recipients used as ID tokens. They also found documents showing immovable property bought for Rs 60 lakh in Taniang’s name. Police have frozen 991 bank accounts linked to the Churachandpur network.

The records confirm the goods-for-drugs system. The books of M/S Go Alpha Trip, which functioned as a mini-ATM counter for routing over Rs 175 crore into the banking system, along with Mizoram mule account statements, show payments to several suppliers. These included a flour mill in West Bengal, an edible oil trader in Assam, filling stations in Mizoram (about Rs 2.61 crore), and various grocery, medicine, footwear, and clothing traders in Delhi.

They issued invoices to third parties in Aizawl and the border towns of Champhai, Zorinpui, and Tlabung. Goods were then sent into Myanmar. Drug suppliers in Myanmar received payment in goods. GST invoices were issued in India, but no direct money trail existed in Myanmar. Investigators are still working to identify more cross-border operatives named in the records, track the consignees in border towns, find the suppliers paid through these channels, and temporarily seize more proceeds of crime.