Page 39 - DRI ANNUAL REPORT EBOOK

In the recent years, however, the smuggling of gold through the land borders has risen many-folds. India’s porous international
borders with Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar help the gold smugglers in their illicit pursuit.
The Khawmawi village in Myanmar, which is located on the east of Zokhawthar is the focal point of the smuggling network.
India and Myanmar share a 1,643-km-long border, along four Indian states – Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. The two routes that cut through this border — the old Tamu-Moreh-Imphal trajectory in Manipur, going through a vast stretch of unguarded but inaccessible terrain and the Zokhatwar route in Mizoram — are popular for trade and transit, both legal and illegal. When militancy in North-Eastern
India subsided in 2013-14, arms smuggling along the Indo-Myanmar border had taken a big hit. But as the routes and the network of carriers were already in place, a switch was made from arms to gold. The gold smuggling through India’s land borders with Myanmar has shot up remarkably in the last couple of years. The recent seizures of gold smuggled in from Myanmar, by DRI lends credence to the aforesaid observation.
SMUGGLING IN INDIA REPORT 2019-20 5
GOLD