On the evening of August 12, security forces stopped a vehicle near the India-Myanmar border in Saitual, Mizoram and seized nearly 1kg of heroin packed in 73 plastic soap cases. Around the same time, at Senapati, Manipur, the police intercepted a vehicle and arrested a man carrying nearly half a kilogram of heroin concealed in 37 soap cases. Hours later, around midnight, in Guwahati, Assam, the police caught two men with half a kilogram of heroin packed into 10 soap cases near the city’s interstate bus terminus.
Three busts involving the same drug, three different states, all in a single night — and all involving an unusual prop, soap cases.
Security forces officials and state police are not surprised.
Across many police stations in the Northeast, piles of plastic soap cases are accumulating, with agencies intensifying the war against drugs following Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah’s pledge of a drug-free India by 2047. Modi also spoke about drug addiction as a major challenge and a drug-free India as a collective responsibility in his Independence Day speech on Saturday.
And the growing pile of soap cases have emerged as a marker of both the scale of the malaise and the extent of the crackdown.
“Every heroin shipment from Myanmar is smuggled in plastic soap cases. There are different sizes of such cases that can fit 50,100, 200 grams of heroin. In Myanmar, this has been the trend for several years. With insurgency almost over in northeastern states, the government’s focus is on drugs, so, naturally we are making recoveries every day. The most common drug (smuggled) from Myanmar is heroin. The soap cases are hidden below vegetables, fruits, inside special cavities or with random household items and transported by road,” said an Assam police officer, who asked not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}“Every heroin shipment from Myanmar is smuggled in plastic soap cases. There are different sizes of such cases that can fit 50,100, 200 grams of heroin. In Myanmar, this has been the trend for several years. With insurgency almost over in northeastern states, the government’s focus is on drugs, so, naturally we are making recoveries every day. The most common drug (smuggled) from Myanmar is heroin. The soap cases are hidden below vegetables, fruits, inside special cavities or with random household items and transported by road,” said an Assam police officer, who asked not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}Interrogations of captured drug smugglers and users have shed light on the ubiquity of the soap cases, according to officials from Mizoram’s narcotics department.
“The Myanmar smugglers believe soap cases help preserve the form of the heroin because the packet is sealed and protected from moisture when wrapped in polythene,” said Peter Zohmingthanga, joint commissioner (enforcement) of Mizoram’s Narcotics department.
“We have also been told that it is easier to sell the product without having to weigh it because of the different sizes (in which the cases are available). It works for users as well as smugglers. The heroin is sold on the basis of the size of the soap case,” he added.
Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) 2025 annual report said Myanmar has overtaken Afghanistan as the world’s largest illicit opium producer following the Taliban’s 2022 poppy ban, increasing trafficking risks for India’s northeastern states. Myanmar’s illicit opium cultivation rose about 56% from 30,200 hectares in 2021 to 47,100 hectares in 2023, making it a key substitute source for the global supply gap left by Afghanistan. The NCB identified India’s eastern borders as the “most direct and porous entry point”, with Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland facing the greatest exposure.
Civil society organisations too have been mobilised to help in this fight.
Mawsawmliana, general secretary of the Central Young Mizo Association (YMA), Mizoram’s most influential civil society organisation, said the YMA has declared 2025 and 2027 as “Years of the Fight Against Drugs” and is working with the Union and state governments to combat trafficking. “Seizures by YMA indicate a high influx of heroin packed in soap cases. They believe the packaging protects the drug from moisture and dirt and makes it easier to measure and sell by weight,” he explained. YMA has formed anti-drug squads across the state and involved churches in counselling users, he said.
Last month, home minister Shah also announced a three-year plan for a targeted crackdown on drugs.The Centre’s different agencies –– DRI, BSF, CRPF, Assam Rifles, NCB –– have joined the war on drugs in the Northeast. And all agencies are recovering heroin filled soap cases in large numbers.
On April 23, an NCB team, along with Assam Rifles, seized 5.43kg of heroin concealed in 474 soap cases in Churachandpur. On July 29, also in Churachandpur, DRI seized 2.7kg of heroin concealed inside 220 soap cases. The CRPF, too, has made similar recoveries. On July 1, it seized nearly 2kg of heroin packed in 168 soap cases in Manipur’s Porompat area.
Amid the intensified crackdown, the Centre in April also approved new NCB zonal offices in Aizawl (Mizoram), Dimapur (Nagaland), and Shillong (Meghalaya). Their primary task — to stop the flow of drugs from the so-called Golden Triangle, comprising Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.
NCB’s annual report identified Mizoram’s Champhai along the Indo-Myanmar border as a major trafficking corridor. “Champhai shares an unfenced and porous border with Myanmar’s Chin state, from where heroin is smuggled and routed through Aizawl to Silchar and then onward through road networks towards Guwahati, Meghalaya and other parts of mainland India,” the report said.
For teams on the ground, however, the fight does not end with just the seizure.
An inspector from a Champhai police in Mizoram, who asked not to be named, said the recovery of the soap cases marks the beginning of a tedious legal and administrative process that can continue for months until both the heroin and the cases are eventually destroyed after obtaining the necessary legal orders.
“First, we have to remove the heroin from all the cases in front of a magistrate. Samples of the heroin and the plastic cases are then sent for examination. All the others, sometimes hundreds of soap cases, have to be numbered and kept safely as case property” the officer said.
The scale of the problem was the most visible in April when the Champhai police destroyed drugs worth ₹450 crore seized in various operations. Around 2,000–2,500 seized plastic soap cases were also destroyed along with the drugs.