The Yaba, a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine crazy illegal drug, is available everywhere - from the capital city to remote villages, from slums to posh areas. Stopping Yaba trade now seems almost impossible.
Thousands of people, particularly young across the country have become hooked on red or pink Yaba pills in recent years. Yaba is now coming in larger quantities from India, through the Kurigram district. On the sea route, smugglers use the southern districts mostly Patuakhali to push the drugs in.
Mohammad Hasanuzzaman, Superintendent of Police of Cox's Bazar, told the Daily Observer on Friday, "Our team regularly apprehends drug peddlers and tries to catch the mastermind behind them since I joined Cox's Bazar police. When we get any information that Yaba is coming into the district through the border, we operate drives and try to reach the mastermind behind a racket."
Police in a drive lead by the SP seized 17 lakh 75 thousand Yaba tablets the highest ever recovered in Cox's Bazar in February, he added. Police also arrested two persons and recovered Tk 1 crore 71 lakh in this connection, the SP added.
The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) seized 10 lakh pieces of Yaba pills in different border observation posts (BOP) in Cox's Bazar only - between April 8 and June 5 this year.
The BGB in a drive seized 4 lakh Yaba tablets worth about Tk 12 crore in Cox's Bazar on April 8.
On May 6, 50,000 pieces of Yaba tablets were seized at Rezupara BOP and another 10,000 pieces at Unciprang BOP.
Two days earlier, on May 4, another 150,000 pieces of Yaba tablets were seized at Balukhali BOP. The day before, on May 3 some 250,000 more pieces were seized at Hnila BOP. On April 29, 40,000 pieces of Yaba pills were seized at Unciprnag BOP.
According to the government data, the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), Police, Border Guard (BGB), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Bangladesh Coast Guard seized around 77 kakh pieces of Yaba tablets just in the first two months of this year.
All the law enforcement agencies also seized around 36 lakh pieces of Yaba in 2020 and over 30 lakh pieces in 2019.
And, over 23 crore Yaba tablets were seized across the country between 2009 and February 2021.
The law enforcing agencies are mainly responsible for the Yaba influx into the country through land and waterways of the 270 km stretch bordering area, a longstanding drug trade which continues to worsen.
Yaba has customarily entered Bangladesh from Myanmar via Teknaf. But for the past year or so, the trends have altered somewhat; in so far as the use of new routes, Rohingya refugees instead of locals as carriers, and replacing the usual brightly coloured Yaba pills with nondescript white pills to ensure a continuous inflow of the 'crazy drug' or as they are locally called, pepey (papaya).
According to police, Yaba pill is sold in the country for as less as Tk 80 to 100 per piece in the wholesale, Tk 300 to Tk 350 in the retail market. In Rohingya camps, they are available for as less as Tk 50 for a pill, "but you have to buy at least one box, containing around 10,000 pills, from the camps to get this rate," according to one Yaba carrier.
Strengthened surveillance on Cox's Bazar Marine Drive could not stop the smuggling of the crazy pill from Myanmar.
Despite the country's provision of death penalty as the highest punishment for drug offences, contraband Yaba consignments sneak through the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and they are being seized every day.
The country is struggling to cope with a surging drug epidemic, at the heart of which is a wildly popular methamphetamine drug known as Yaba. Yet, the inflow of Yaba in the country continues.
