New Delhi, June 4 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out massive search operations across nine spots in the border town of Champhai along the Mizoram-Myanmar frontier in its ongoing investigation into the case of large-scale smuggling of illegal Burmese dry areca nuts into India.

The search operation is continued from early morning in close coordination with the Mizoram Police.

Officials said this major crackdown "targets a highly organised cross-border network heavily involved in the large-scale smuggling of illegal Burmese supari (dry Areca nuts) into India."

"The ongoing raids focus primarily on the residences and business premises of prominent local facilitators of the smuggling network," the officials, privy t...