Bhopinder Singh

The Coast Guard’s drug seizure near the Andaman Islands underscores the ongoing challenge of tackling transnational syndicates engaged in illicit trafficking near the Indian coast

 Heeding to their motto of Vayam Rakshamah (We Protect), the Indian Coast Guard personnel executed a befitting operation in the Andaman and Nicobar waters to mark one of the largest drug busts in Indian maritime history. The haul of nearly 6000 kgs of the banned Methamphetamine near Barren Islands (150 km away from Port Blair) is estimated at around 36,000 crores in the international market. The picture-perfect operation was triggered by the presence of a suspicious trawler (Soe Wai Yan Htoo) in the Indian waters by a Coast Guard Dornier reconnaissance plane which then swooped down and asked the trawler to lower its speed, whilst informing the base. Soon enough, fast patrolling vessels of the Coast Guard were tasked to the place, and they towed the six Myanmarese crew trawler to Port Blair, for further investigations. Ongoing interrogations reveal the presence of an unyielding, trained and secretive crew with the presence of a satellite phone that has all the hallmarks of a major and international drug syndicate. But for now, it marks the ever-vigil capabilities of the Indian Coast Guard in ensuring the integrity of our maritime borders and policing against transnational crime.

 While the geographical location of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands naturally lends itself towards fructifying India’s strategic “Look East” opportunity (as also dominates the sensitive and narrow Malacca Straits that facilitates 40% of global trade) – it is also in the crosshairs of Myanmar, the largest producer of illegal methamphetamine, which is then exported to markets in the US, Europe to Eastern countries. The restive Shan State of Myanmar (bordering China with an ethnic Han-Chinese populace and multiple insurgent groups widely believed to be supported by China) is also home to the infamous Cantonese Chinese drugs syndicate, Sam Gor (popularly known as ‘The Company’).

This notorious set-up is involved in global drug trafficking and is said to be in control of over 40 per cent of Asian-Pacific trade in substances like methamphetamine, heroin, ketamine, fentanyl etc. This lucrative trade is believed to generate earnings up to a staggering $8 billion, annually. Currently, it is believed to be headed by a Chinese gangster called Tse Chi Lop, who is also widely known by the moniker “El Chapo of Asia”. Even though Tse Chi Lop is currently in custody and facing trials in Australia – his organisation Sam Gor and its affiliated operations are continuing, unabated.

 Ironically, he could have created such a vast drug infrastructure and empire in a region contiguous to the Chinese mainland, where the Chinese have many beholden armed militias, but he never got targeted or arrested by the Chinese authorities. Also strange is the fact that he never attempted to ship his produce towards the Chinese mainland, raising serious doubts if he were to have enjoyed some sort of official patronage from the Chinese authorities. Unsurprisingly, Tse Chi Lop’s rise has not been marked by the usual stories of violence and gore of drug lords but by the unusual route of steady industrialisation and establishing well-maintained networks of key international partnerships, which are impossible without some sort of sovereign backing. And the Chinese are the masters of asymmetric subterfuge in that they patronise proxies and bad elements, as long as they do the bidding of the Chinese government, and do not direct their illicit trade towards the Chinese mainland.While it is too early to confirm the exact hand behind the recent cache in the Andaman and Nicobar waters, the quantity/value of drugs involved, the location of the trawler arrest, and the nationality of the trawler crew, all point to origins that seem disconcertingly familiar. That the restive Myanmar mainland (with areas like Shan State that are ‘no-go’ zones to even the Myanmar military) is closer to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands than the Indian mainland, makes the threat real and perennial. It is a testy region given too much Chinese intrigues and ambitions – in fact, the Myanmar-owned Coco Coco Islands (barely 50 km from the northernmost tip of the Andaman Islands range) were believed to have had Chinese militaristic assets, but the same was never proved.

The Chinese have planned substantial investments in Myanmar via its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which includes projects like the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) or even the development of the deep-sea port of Kyaukpyu, in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.  The Chinese have a vested interest in keeping their footprints in the region and it is not beyond them to oscillate from making pure investments in the Myanmar Government to patronizing rebel militias or even drug lords, towards its objectives in the region. India must safeguard its interests and strategic imperatives that beset its distant outpost in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Sadly, it is not the first and it wouldn’t be the last such operation. Situational status suggests that this specific haul was destined for Thailand, which typically sees a surge around the onsetting festive season, but this too is in the realm of conjecture, as yet. And the real concern is not if this consignment was the handiwork of the Chinese Sam Gor gang (or of the El Mencho-run Jalisco New Generation Cartel), but of the murky linkages with the Chinese authorities, which is always a possibility.

 (The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are personal)

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