A coordinated anti-narcotics sweep stretching across three northeastern states has just landed a major blow against what Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is calling an international drugs and hawala nexus — and on Sunday, 25 October 2026, he made clear this is only the beginning.

What Op Trident uncovered across Assam, Manipur and Mizoram

Operation Trident, conducted simultaneously across Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram, targeted the twin pipelines of drug trafficking and hawala money flows that have long shadowed the region. CM Sarma described the operation as 'a huge blow to the international drugs cartel,' signalling that the nexus disrupted was not merely local but plugged into cross-border networks. The three states sit at the edge of India's frontier with the Golden Triangle — the Myanmar-Laos-Thailand corridor that remains one of the world's most prolific narcotics-producing zones — making them both a transit corridor and an increasingly targeted market.

The simultaneous sweep across state lines is significant. Multi-state coordination of this kind requires active alignment between state police forces, central agencies, and political leadership — precisely the architecture the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), which Sarma convenes, was designed to enable. Whether it is intelligence sharing or operational sync, NEDA's common political roof across several northeastern states has made joint enforcement drives of this scale logistically feasible.

Nasha Mukt Bharat and the 2029 deadline Sarma has set

CM Sarma anchored the operation squarely within the Union Government's Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan, the national campaign launched in August 2020 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to tackle substance abuse through enforcement, awareness, and rehabilitation. But he went further, staking out a concrete political commitment: making drugs 'a history by 2029.' That year is not chosen at random — it sits at the edge of the current electoral cycle and frames the anti-narcotics push as a measurable governance deliverable, not just a sentiment.

'The Union Govt and our State Govts in the North East are firm on tackling this menace,' Sarma wrote, framing Op Trident as part of 'relentless pursuit against the mafias.' The use of the word 'mafias' — plural — and the hawala angle together suggest law enforcement sees an organised financial architecture behind the drug trade, not just freelance trafficking.

Why the Northeast sits at the centre of India's drug battle

Northeast India has been a recurring theatre for anti-narcotics operations for decades. Its porous borders, mountainous terrain, and proximity to the Golden Triangle have made it a preferred entry point for heroin, methamphetamine, and other synthetic drugs moving toward India's interior. Successive central governments have escalated joint drives with Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram — the same three states named in Op Trident — specifically because those borders are hardest to police unilaterally. The hawala dimension adds a financial-crime layer: disrupting money flows can unravel trafficking networks more durably than seizing a single consignment.

The youth of the Northeast — the most directly vulnerable demographic — are the stated beneficiaries of this push. Whether Op Trident translates into sustained structural disruption or a single headline-grabbing sweep will be tested by what follows: official seizure figures, arrests, and any response from the Narcotics Control Bureau or the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The mafias have been warned. The clock to 2029 is running.