On paper, a homemaker in Champhai lived on about Rs 27,000 a month. Her bank account, operated by her husband, a bank employee, received Rs 15.48 crore.
That account is one of the details in a money-laundering case the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) says it has now cracked open. In a press release dated October 25, 2026, the agency said it has uncovered a single, connected hawala network that carried cash from drug sales across the Northeast and beyond back to suppliers in Myanmar, with the Champhai-Zokhawthar border sector of Mizoram at its centre.
ED says it arrested six people, froze 1,424 bank accounts, and attached a five-storey hotel in Champhai. The total assets secured in the case now exceed Rs 26 crore (Rs 26.01 crore, in the headline figure).
What happened on October 23
ED’s Aizawl and Imphal Sub-Zonal Offices carried out coordinated searches on October 23, 2026, under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The premises were in Aizawl, Champhai and Lawngtlai in Mizoram, and in Churachandpur in Manipur. They included the premises of hawala operators, mule-account holders and front businesses, a Mini-ATM counter, and the bank branches that hold the key accounts.
The operation was coordinated with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Mizoram Police, who carried out parallel action against the trafficking network the same day.
ED says it froze 1,424 bank accounts linked to narco-trade and narco-hawala operators in Mizoram and Manipur, under Section 17(1A) of the PMLA. It provisionally attached properties worth Rs 17.82 crore belonging to narco-hawala operators based in Mizoram. ED had earlier secured Rs 8.19 crore in frozen bank accounts, which takes the total assets secured to over Rs 26 crore.
Six accused were arrested under Section 19 of the PMLA during the searches, three in Mizoram and three in Manipur. ED is also processing production-for-arrest applications against four more accused, who are already in judicial custody in narcotics cases, before the Special Court in Mizoram.
Three seizures, three cases
ED’s investigation began with FIRs registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. It has registered three money-laundering cases, each with an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) number.
The first, ECIR/AZSZO/05/2025, is called the Krishiv Enterprise case. It arises from the seizure of 4.722 kg of heroin, packed in 440 soap cases, by Zokhawthar Police, Champhai, on March 14, 2025. The consignment was being carried from Zokhawthar to Aizawl for a Myanmar-based supplier.
The second, ECIR/AZSZO/01/2026, is the Jabrul Haque case. It arises from the seizure of 49.101 kg of methamphetamine tablets and 40 grams of heroin by the NCB, Agartala, from a convoy on NH-06A near Seling, Mizoram, on August 21, 2025. The consignment was sourced from Chintuang of Myanmar for delivery at the Damchhera-Kanhmun border.
The third, ECIR/IMSZO/12/2026, is the Zenngaihniang @ Taniang case in Manipur. It arises from the seizure of 2.413 kg of brown sugar and Rs 31.43 lakh in cash by Churachandpur Police on July 2, 2026. ED says the cash was sale proceeds of drugs supplied from Myanmar, collected at Churachandpur for remittance to the suppliers.
One network, not three
ED says the three cases are connected. Its investigation, the agency says, has exposed “one inter-connected narco-hawala ecosystem.” The same set of bank accounts in Champhai, Aizawl and Lawngtlai received drug money generated in Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura, and settled it with suppliers in Myanmar.
ED places this in a wider setting. The Northeast shares a 1,643 km porous border with Myanmar, and has emerged as the principal land corridor for drugs produced in the Golden Triangle. Heroin and methamphetamine tablets entering Mizoram and Manipur are consumed locally and moved onward through Assam to the rest of India and Bangladesh. The money generated across this chain flows back to the border towns of Mizoram, where it is settled with the Myanmar-based suppliers.
A two-way street
ED describes the Champhai-Zokhawthar sector as a corridor that runs in both directions. According to ED, M/s Krishiv Enterprises dispatched about 32 tonnes of Caffeine Anhydrous in 15 consignments between March and November 2024, besides 10 tonnes of Aluminium Chloride Anhydrous.
The shipments went on regular e-way bills and GST invoices to small retail pharmacies and a general store in Aizawl and the Mizoram border belt. None of these consignees, ED says, has a manufacturing or processing facility of its own.
From these front consignees, the agency says, the chemicals were moved across the border to tablet-pressing units in Myanmar, where Caffeine Anhydrous is used to bulk and cut methamphetamine into “Yaba” tablets.
Finished heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets produced in Myanmar are carried across the Tiau River at Zokhawthar, the border crossing opposite Khawmawi in Myanmar. They are staged at Champhai, and then travel down the Champhai-Aizawl road and NH-06A to Aizawl, Vairengte and the Assam and Tripura borders.
ED names two Myanmar-based organisers, Runthanchhungi and Chintuang, who hire local carriers in Zokhawthar and Champhai, and move consignments concealed in soap cases, taxis, motorcycles and truck convoys with escort vehicles.
The carriers are paid through the same Champhai hawala accounts that receive drug money from across the Northeast. In ED’s account, the chemical supply, the drug flow and the money trail all converge on the Champhai-Zokhawthar corridor.
How the money went back
The money trail, ED says, begins far from Champhai. The drugs that leave the corridor are sold for cash across Manipur, Assam, Tripura and other parts of India, and the proceeds have to be gathered and sent back to the suppliers in Myanmar.
In this sector of Manipur, ED says, cash was collected by syndicate operatives such as Nengzatuan Valte and handed to cash handlers such as Zenngaihniang. From Taniang’s hands, it entered the banking system through Mini-ATM and Customer Service Point (CSP) counters. He delivered up to Rs 1 crore a day, along with a list of beneficiary accounts, to M/s Go Alpha Trip, a Mini-ATM and money-transfer counter in Churachandpur run by H. Gouzalal.
According to ED, the counter recorded Taniang under the code name “NUNIANG.” Between 2024 and June 2026, it made 2,947 transfers totalling Rs 175.03 crore to traders, pharmacies and individuals in Zokhawthar, Champhai, Lawngtlai and Aizawl. Part of the money was routed through other Churachandpur counters and front entities to break the trail.
The pharmacies, general stores and individuals who received the money rented out their accounts for Rs 500 per lakh, ED says. They passed the funds on within days by RTGS, NEFT or IMPS, with negligible cash withdrawals and no underlying trade. Of Rs 11.98 crore received in seven accounts that ED analysed, only Rs 17 lakh was withdrawn in cash. And then there is the Champhai homemaker’s account, which received Rs 15.48 crore against a family income of about Rs 27,000 a month.
The Rupee-Kyat exchangers
The layered funds finally reached unlicensed Rupee-Kyat exchangers in Champhai, chiefly Lalrampari and her husband Lalliansanga, proprietor of M/s JTS Store. Their accounts recorded credits of about Rs 268.80 crore, including Rs 125 crore in cash from Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, Tripura and Delhi.
ED stresses that the drug money reaching the hawala accounts in Aizawl and Champhai did not come from the Northeast alone. The accounts received substantial funds from New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. This included about Rs 2.14 crore received by hawala operator Lalrinkima from shell entities based in Kolkata, and Rs 10 lakh received by Taniang from a Howrah-based shell company. Cash was also deposited in Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Silchar into the accounts of Champhai-based operators. ED says this indicates that proceeds from drugs sold in the big cities were being routed back to the border through layered corporate and hawala channels.
On instructions from Myanmar-based persons, the operators transferred the money to accounts across India and settled the suppliers’ dues in Kyat across the border, for a commission of Rs 250 to Rs 500 per lakh. The proceeds were also put into real estate and businesses, ED says, including Hotel JTS, a five-storey commercial building at Zion Veng, Champhai, built from funds routed through the hawala accounts.
ED seized incriminating ledgers of cash received and transfers made, cheque books, debit cards, mobile phones, and the digital devices used to operate the accounts. Account holders admitted that they had rented their accounts to suspected narco-hawala operators for Rs 500 per lakh.
The ledgers of Go Alpha Trip in Churachandpur, ED says, matched the credits in the Mizoram accounts under investigation in the two Aizawl cases. The accounts named are those of Thangkhuala and his wife (Rs 2.22 crore), Zuali Drugs Store (Rs 2.67 crore), Fung Than Kimi (Rs 2.05 crore), Lalbiakhluna Lalduhawma (Rs 1.82 crore) and Lalrampari.
ED says this establishes that the drug cash collected in Manipur was being settled through the same Champhai hawala accounts that service the heroin and methamphetamine networks of Mizoram.
The ED has arrested six persons in connection with the three money-laundering cases. They include Kashyap G. Thakkar of Aizawl, Mizoram, in ECIR/AZSZO/05/2025; Thangkhuala of Champhai, Mizoram, and T. Chatuan Vanlalgakha of Aizawl, Mizoram, in ECIR/AZSZO/01/2026; and Zenngaihniang alias Taniang, Nengzatuan Valte alias Tuanpi, and H. Gouzalal, all from Churachandpur, Manipur, in ECIR/IMSZO/12/2026.
Taniang and Tuanpi were already in judicial custody in NDPS cases and were formally arrested with the permission of the Special Judge, NDPS, Churachandpur. The arrested persons are being produced before the jurisdictional Special Courts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
What comes next
ED says the investigation is continuing. It is trying to identify the other customers of the Churachandpur cluster of Mini-ATMs and CSPs, the operators of the beneficiary accounts, the Myanmar-based recipients, and the end users of the chemicals. It will also examine the role of bank officials and CSP operators, and trace and attach further proceeds of crime.
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