Manipur Police busts massive fake currency, drugs racket in Imphal; two arrested

The Imphal East Police Anti-drug Cell busted a fake currency and drug racket on Thursday, recovering a huge stash of fake currency notes and drugs from the gang.

Officials said the racket was located in the Urup Kangthak village and Keirao village areas of Manipur's Imphal East district.

While officials seized narcotics and multiple bundles of 500 currency notes, they also arrested two suspects in the case. According to local media, the police also discovered various items needed for printing the phony notes.

Manipur | Anti-Drug cell of Imphal East Police busted a fake currency racket & recovered 3790 suspected World is Yours (WY) drugs, 60g suspected Heroin, 26 bundles & 89 numbers of 500 fake currency notes & 101 numbers of 500 fake currency uncut sheets; 2 accused arrested (25.8) pic.twitter.com/r9x0oJRBvK

— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2022

“We recovered 3,790 suspected World is Yours (WY) drugs, 60 grams of suspected Heroin, 26 bundles and 89 numbers of 500 fake currency notes and 101 numbers of 500 fake currency uncut sheets,” the police said further adding that an investigation is presently underway. 

Notably, this came just days after the Assam Police arrested a man in connection with a fake cash scheme in Guwahati in July. The police also confiscated a Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) printing machine from the accused, as well as counterfeit notes and other materials used in the production of the currency notes.

In light of the decline in the value of counterfeit notes in the financial system, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary previously informed the Lok Sabha that there have been cases when phony cash has been brought in from neighboring nations.

“While notes seized by different law enforcement agencies have gone up, there is a discernible trend of reduction in the number of counterfeit notes detected in the banking system,” he said.

To combat the smuggling of counterfeit notes, India and Bangladesh have formed a combined task force to build trust and cooperation in the exchange of information and analysis of FICN traffickers.