Smuggling of Yaba tablets, a transnational organised crime, continues to fester in Bangladesh.
Smuggling of Yaba has increased with its demand rising and law enforcers have failed to stop it despite the government's zero tolerance policy on drugs.
Yaba flows despite Bangladesh launched a war on drugs in 2018. Several hundreds of accused drug dealers were killed and thousands were arrested all over the country but drug trade has remained unstoppable.
A high official of law enforcing agencies preferring anonymity told The Daily Observer on Friday that the smuggling of Yaba had increased across the country for its demand.
Law enforces and also the government have taken several initiatives to stop the smuggling of Yaba but they failed, he added.
A synthetic stimulant 'Yaba' typically comes in the form of colourful, candy-like tablets. The main ingredient in producing Yaba is the chemical amphetamine, which is smuggled from China and Thailand to Myanmar, which hosts the largest number of clandestine Yaba laboratories.
The Yaba pills are transported from Maungdaw city of Rakhine to the Tombru border, where it melts into the Rohingya camps situated just beside the zero line along Bangladesh.
The closely placed Rohingya camps in Ukhiya are used for storing the Yaba consignments, until further transportation to Cox's Bazar. The Rohingya camps are ideal for storing the Yaba drug consignments.
The law enforcement agencies have launched an all-out anti-narcotics operation with special focus on eradicating methamphetamine tablet known as Yaba which is being mainly trafficked into Bangladesh through Cox's Bazar's-Teknaf areas from neighboring Myanmar.
Many suspected drug dealers were killed during encounter with law enforcers in Cox's Bazar. But the drug trafficking situation in the bordering district is yet to reach a tolerable level raising question about the success of the government's ongoing war on drugs.
Sources said Yaba is coming through 55 points of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The major illegal
Yaba shipment is done through the Teknaf and Ukhia areas of Cox's Bazar.
However, intelligence agencies said drug traffickers are adopting new strategies in trafficking Yaba. Many illegal shipments are being seized even after resorting to new tactics
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) conducted 6,873 raids in 2020 and arrested 12,039 dealers while filed 6,478 cases against them. RAB recovered 96, 59,321 pieces of Yaba pills in this time.
Meanwhile, according to the Department of Narcotics Control, 56583 operations were done in 2020.
At that time there were 14656 cases where the number of accused was 15750 and 16, 97,207 pieces of Yaba pills were recovered during this period.
On the other hand, the BGB recovered 1, 10, 65,456 pieces of Yaba in 2020, while Dhaka Metropolitan Police registered 12619 cases in 2020.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) has warned that growing demand for synthetic opioids in East Asia and Southeast is an indicator that the region will continue to grow as a source of synthetic drugs.
Bangladesh is simultaneously a transit and destination country of the drug trafficking network.
