Aizawl, Oct 15 (IANS): The Assam Rifles and the state Excise and Narcotics Department, in a joint operation on Saturday, seized drugs valued at Rs 12.12 crore in poll-bound Mizoram and arrested two drug peddlers, officials said.

Assam Rifles sources said that acting on a secret information, its troopers along with officials of Excise and Narcotics Department recovered 40,400 highly addictive Methamphetamine tablets tablets (also locally called Yaba tablet or party tablet) worth Rs 12.12 crore from the two smugglers at Zote in Champhai district.

The recovered drugs, smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar, have been handed over to the Excise and Narcotics Department.

An Assam Rifles official statement said that the ongoing smuggling of contraband items is a major cause of concern for Mizoram and India.

"The Assam Rifles have continued their efforts against illegal smuggling and has also doubled its efforts to nab the kingpins of the smuggling of contraband items in Mizoram,” the statement said.

The Election Commission issued several directives to the Central and state law enforcing agencies to further intensify their efforts to prevent smuggling from the neighbouring countries or to seize the illegally imported drugs and nab the smugglers.

Elections to the 40-member Mizoram assembly would be held on November 7. Tripura's border with Bangladesh and Mizoram and Manipur’s unfenced frontier with Myanmar have become an easy corridor for drugs smuggling in northeast India. Besides various illicit drugs, foreign cigarettes, gold, arms and ammunition, exotic animals, and areca nuts are often smuggled from Myanmar into the northeastern states.