HYDERABAD: Investigation into the Rs 11,793 crore human hair smuggling racket has unearthed the complex money trail and alleged money laundering from Hyderabad to Mizoram and on to Myanmar. Key details have emerged on how human hair smuggling money is routed back to Hyderabad from (traders in) Myanmar.
Cash, originating from alleged illegal sources, is deposited and routed through multiple accounts, including bank accounts of several accused and suspected companies, linked to human hair smuggling. Of the Rs 11,793 crore, Rs 2,491 crore cash (over 21%) was deposited into suspected accounts.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) had in Feb 2022, conducted searches across the country and unearthed a massive racket allegedly smuggling Indian hair illegally to China through Myanmar. TOI investigation revealed the huge nexus where human hair from Hyderabad is smuggled to China via Myanmar and Mizoram. ED had also filed a chargesheet against 18 in 2023. The kingpin Lucas Tangamngliana and eight others hail from the Mizoram border town of Champai, which served as the nerve centre for smuggling raw human hair to China via Myanmar.
After TOI exposed the modus operandi, the ED plunged into action and Hyderabad Central Crime Station in 2021 had registered cases.
City-based firm used benami import export codes for exporting human hair
The CCS has registered case against city-based Nayla Family Exports Private Limited for using benami import export codes (IEC) for exporting human hair, impersonation, using forged documents, and smuggling human hair to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam and China from the Hyderabad airport and through land routes via Mizoram.
Nayla Family Group has allegedly created multiple shell entities (benami entities) and has been exporting human hair cargo by using IEC of shell entities at grossly undervalued rates.
Documents exclusively available with TOI revealed that these entities were disbanded whenever they get into trouble with any tax authorities and new IEC were devised for this impersonation.
The compensatory payments for the undervalued exports were received via hawala channels. The estimated value of the human hair being smuggled across the border was found to be about 8,000 crore per annum.
Investigations by TOI, now corroborated by ED, found that Telangana & Andhra Pradesh-based human hair traders were also booking domestic sale of human hairs to shell entities in the North-East and Kolkata.
In turn, these entities were smuggling human hair to Myanmar via land routes, and from that country, the hair was ultimately smuggled into China.