Law enforces strengthened attempts are failing to Yaba-traffickers desperation to prevent entering Yaba pills into Bangladesh from Myanmar. Yaba traffickers entering Bangladesh are considered one of the largest and most heavily armed trafficking groups in the world.
The craze for Yaba among the youth is the biggest problem in Bangladesh. It is estimated that there are about 4.6 million regular users of Yaba in Bangladesh, and the number is alarmingly on rise.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members have seized 256,000 yaba pills worth Tk 8 crore and detained four others in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar. A trawler used for drug trafficking was seized at the time.
At 6 pm on Thursday, BGB arrested 4 persons from Naf River near Jhinakhal in Nayapara of Sabrang union of Teknaf and seized 256,000 Yaba pills from Kharangkhali area of Huaikeng union of the upazila on Wednesday night.
The four arrested in this connection are Chhewachi (36), a resident of Myanmar, Nem Yu Ch (38), Mohammad of Hnila Union of Teknaf Upazila, Jahangir Alam (42) and Md Shahpari Island of Sabrang Union and Hafeez Ahmed (40).
Earlier, in a drive on Wednesday, Members of
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) seized 180,000 yaba pills worth Tk5.40 crore from the Naf River in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar. Tipped off, a team of BGB-2 conducted a drive in the river along Kharangkhali area and challenged a boat coming from Myanmar around 12:15am.
The suspected smugglers opened fire on BGB members, forcing the border guards to retaliate in self-defence. Later, they seized the yaba pills from two sacks.
On the other hand, Rapid Action Battalion arrested four drug dealers with 11,600 pieces of yaba in a raid in capital's Darussalam on Thursday night.
The arrested persons are M Nishadur Rahman, 25, M Zahidul Islam, 22, Md Khaled Sheikh, 22, and M Saju Islam, 23.
Assistant Director (Media Officer) of RAB-4 Md Mazharul Islam said that on the basis of secret information, a team conducted an anti-drug operation in Dakshin Kalyanpur area of Darussalam police station in Mirpur on Wednesday night and arrested four drug dealers along with 11,600 pieces of yaba.
The Border Guard Bangladesh recovered 2 lakh pieces of Burmese Yaba worth Tk 6 crore during a drive in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar, said a BGB media release on last Saturday.
The illegal drug was being smuggled to Bangladesh from Myanmar through Balukhal Katapahar area on Thursday, added the release.
The densely populated Rohingya camps in Ukhiya are exploited for storing the Yaba consignments, until further transportation to Cox's Bazar.
In the Teknaf region, the Yaba drug-traffickers have endeared themselves to the desperate Rohingyas by regularly donating free food and money which acts as a bulwark against police action in the area, and Rohingya refugee families are highly secretive about the Yaba smuggling.
Reportedly, with no means of any livelihood, smuggling Yaba helps them to eke out a living and pay for bare necessities. In 2018, a major raid on drug trade took place in Bangladesh where a record 53 million methamphetamine pills were seized. The unabated Yaba smuggling compelled the Bangladesh government to pass the Narcotics Control Bill in October 2018 with a provision of death sentence or life-term imprisonment as punishment for drug-related crimes.
