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CHAPTER 1: GOLD SMUGGLING IN INDIA: EMERGING TRENDS 5
DRI Gold Seizures in FY 2020-21: Percentage of quantity seized by originating country
Figure 4-Origin of Seized Gold
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, which goes through a vast expanse of unguarded but inaccessible area, and the Zokhatwar route in Mizoram — are popular from the point of view of trade and transit, both legal and illegal.
Thefirststopofthegoldafterbeing smuggled into India is typically Imphal, followed by Guwahati for aggregation and subsequent
distribution to all parts of India, predominantly by road. Of further strategic importance is the fact that Myanmar lies at the crossroad between China, India and Southeast Asia — right in the middle of the points of supply and demand for contraband ranging from cheap cigarettes, exotic animals to gold. Finally, there is the difficult terrain, which the locals do not find hard to negotiate.
Investigations have revealed smuggling of huge quantity of foreign origin gold from Myanmar into India through the Indo-Myanmar land border, to
