While families across Assam lit diyas and burst crackers on Diwali night, Assam Police was running a very different kind of operation — and it paid off. The Chief Minister's Office of Assam announced on Monday, 9 November 2026 that officers under Mazbat Police Station intercepted a drug haul along the Assam–Arunachal Pradesh border, seizing 102.28 kg of ganja and apprehending four persons. The operation, carried out the previous night, underscores how the state's anti-narcotics machinery does not stand down for festivals.

The Diwali night intercept at Mazbat

Mazbat Police Station falls under Udalguri district, in a stretch of territory where the inter-state boundary with Arunachal Pradesh has long served as a conduit for contraband movement. The timing — a major festival night when police attention might reasonably be expected to thin — makes the seizure particularly notable. Law enforcement across the Northeast has repeatedly identified festival periods as windows that trafficking networks attempt to exploit, with higher civilian movement providing useful cover.

Four individuals were apprehended in connection with the consignment. The CMO's post confirmed that 'further investigation is underway,' suggesting the case is being treated as a network-level probe rather than a one-time intercept.

Assam Against Drugs: a drive that keeps its scorecard public

The hashtag #AssamAgainstDrugs stamped on the official post is not incidental. Since 2021, the Assam government has run a sustained, publicly communicated anti-narcotics campaign along its inter-state borders, using periodic high-visibility seizures to signal both enforcement muscle and political will. Border corridors with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram feature repeatedly in this record — the Northeast's forested inter-state boundaries offer terrain that is difficult to fully surveil and historically attractive to traffickers moving cannabis and synthetic drugs.

By publicising the operation through the CM's official channel rather than a routine police press note, the state government consciously folds the seizure into a broader governance narrative: the administration is on watch even when the rest of the state is at celebration.

What investigators are now chasing

The immediate question is where the 102.28 kg consignment was headed and who ordered it. Four arrests open threads that investigators typically pull on — supply-chain origins across the border, local distribution contacts, and financing. The CMO noted that the probe is continuing, leaving open the possibility of follow-up arrests. Analysts who track Northeast trafficking patterns have flagged that larger hauls often indicate a supply glut or an attempt to pre-position stock before a festival-driven demand spike — both worth examining here.

Whether joint coordination with Arunachal Pradesh Police will follow, as has happened in past operations, is the next thing to watch.