Imphal: Anti-narcotics officials have destroyed 1,837 acres of poppy plantations, which could produce opium valued at Rs 128 crore, at 36 places in Manipur this year.

The operations were conducted by sleuths of Narcotics and Affairs of Borders (NAB), the anti-narcotics cell of Manipur police, and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) with the support of customs and central paramilitary forces and officials from the horticulture and forest departments.

On Saturday, NCB and NAB officials destroyed 83 acres of poppy plantation at Hangoipat in Imphal East, which could have produced opium valued at Rs 5.81 crore.

NAB superintendent S. Basu said poppy farms spread over 446 acres were destroyed last year. "We will continue our drive and find out the owners of the plantations soon," he added. NCB Imphal superintendent Vikash Kumar said large quantities of drugs, especially WY (World's Yours) tablets and heroin, were coming in from Myanmar and pharmaceutical drugs like Spasmo Proxyvon were being smuggled to Myanmar.

On Friday, Tengnoupal police and NAB arrested a Myanmarese drug smuggler U. Zaw Lin, 33, near a temple in Moreh and seized 30 packets of heroin and 298 WY tablets, valued at around Rs 25 lakh.