The Indian Coast Guard’s Dornier aircraft detected a boat named Soe Wai Yan Htoo during a reconnaissance sortie. Finding the boat’s operations suspicious, the reconnaissance team informed the Joint Operations Centre (JOC), which deployed a Fast Patrol Vessel, ICG Ship Aruna Asaf Ali, to intercept it.

The vessel did not match the characteristics of a local Indian boat and was flying the Myanmar flag. The Indian Coast Guard shadowed the vessel and boarded it for investigation at 0630 hrs on 24 November 2024, when it was eight nautical miles off Barren Island in Indian territorial waters. The six crew members on board were identified as Myanmarese nationals.

The boat was carrying approximately 5,500 kg of methamphetamine and a satellite phone, marking the biggest-ever drug haul by the Coast Guard in the maritime domain. All six Myanmarese crew members were arrested along with the banned crystalline meth.

A major concern for investigators is identifying the intended destination. Could it have been the Andamans itself, or was the boat headed elsewhere? The crew’s use of a satellite phone suggests they were being guided by unknown traffickers from a remote location. One possible destination is Tamil Nadu, which has become a key transit point for international drug syndicates trafficking methamphetamine or its precursor, pseudoephedrine, to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Australia—markets with high demand.

In 2024 alone, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence’s (DRI) Chennai zone seized 57 kg of the drug, worth Rs 360 crore, in just four cases. In each of these cases, the narcotic was sourced from Myanmar and was en route to Sri Lanka. Meth trafficking is a highly lucrative business, with the drug selling for around Rs 7 lakh per kg in Chennai. Drug syndicates often use Sri Lankan Tamils for this trade, as they are familiar with the terrain and facilitate mid-sea transfers and hawala cash payments.

The seizure of methamphetamine packaged in ‘yellow tea’ packets with Chinese markings in Tamil Nadu indicates links to global syndicates in Southeast Asia and Australia. Meth is now the second most popular drug in Sri Lanka. Moreh, in Manipur, has a Tamil community with strong ties to operatives in Tamil Nadu. Local contacts in Manipur assist syndicates........

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