First Principles IAS · Current affairs

Everything filed · Internal Security › Border security › Drug trafficking and organised crime

Printed on · firstprinciplesias.com/current-affairs

Internal Security › Border security

Drug trafficking and organised crime

The routes by which narcotics reach India, the organised crime that runs them, and the agencies and operations against them.

Asked before

Mains 2026 GS3: Ladakh is strategically located between China and Pakistan. As a measure to win hearts and minds of locals, discuss the Border Area Devel…
Mains 2025 GS3: Why is maritime security vital to protect India's sea trade? Discuss maritime and coastal security challenges and the way forward.
Mains 2024 GS3: Explain how narco-terrorism has emerged as a serious threat across the country. Suggest suitable measures to counter narco-terrorism.
Mains 2024 GS3: India has a long and troubled border with China and Pakistan fraught with contentious issues. Examine the conflicting issues and security…
Mains 2023 GS3: The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by our adversaries across the borders to ferry arms/ammunitions, drugs, etc., is a serious thr…
Mains 2022 GS3: Discuss the types of organised crimes. Describe the linkages between terrorists and organised crime that exist at the national and transn…
Mains 2022 GS3: What are the maritime security challenges in India? Discuss the organisational, technical and procedural initiatives taken to improve the…
Mains 2020 GS3: For effective border area management, discuss the steps required to be taken to deny local support to militants and also suggest ways to…

See all: Mains

Operation Trident: NCB raids 38 sites across three northeastern States against a Myanmar based cartel

BriefPrelims and Mains23 Oct 2026

The Narcotics Control Bureau raided 38 locations at once across three northeastern States on 23 October 2026, against a cartel led by a Myanmar based drug lord arrested in Delhi in May. The map gives the States, the border town of Zokhawthar and the raid's numbers.

The cartel moved methamphetamine and heroin from Myanmar through the north east to Bangladesh, the corridor the Home Minister calls the "Death Triangle".
The government aims to end every drug network by 31 December 2029. Because drug money and insurgency feed each other along the same border, the frozen bank accounts matter as much as the seizures.

Exam lens: the Narcotics Control Bureau is under the Home Ministry; the Golden Triangle supplies the north east; Zokhawthar is the Mizoram border town opposite Myanmar; about 1,400 accounts frozen in Operation Trident.

Open full size

Sources

The Indian Express, 26 October 2026
PIB, 25 October 2026

UNODC: Afghan opium cultivation quadruples despite the Taliban ban

BriefPrelims and Mains31 Oct 2026

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in October 2026 that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan rose more than fourfold in 2026, to 43,000 hectares from 10,000 in 2025. Production rose fivefold to 1,500 tonnes.

The Taliban's ban of 2022 had cut cultivation from more than 2,00,000 hectares, and Myanmar became the world's top producer. Badakhshan, in the north east, is now the main growing province.
A hectare of poppy earned about $10,000 against just over $770 for wheat in 2023. Without alternative livelihoods, bans do not last.
Afghan opium feeds the heroin that reaches India through Pakistan and by sea, the Golden Crescent route. Myanmar's opium and methamphetamine reach the north east from the Golden Triangle.

Exam lens: the Golden Crescent is Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan; the Golden Triangle is Myanmar, Laos and Thailand; Badakhshan is the main opium province in 2026; the UNODC publishes the opium survey.

Sources

The Hindu, 29 October 2026

Settled facts (dates of Acts, constitutional provisions, standing definitions) are from standard references.