Teknaf, Bangladesh: The trade in illegal drugs on the Burma-Bangladesh border, the hub of Bangladesh’s narcotics business, is controlled by relatively few people. The drugs traffickers have been using a 14-kilometer-long route between Teknaf and Shapuri Dip to smuggle aphrodisiac and methamphetamine tablets from Burma, mainly Yaba, into Bangladesh, said a businessman from Teknaf who declined to be named.
“Sabrang Union (village tract), located on the southern part of Teknaf Upazila near Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, Burma, is one of the main points used by the traffickers. Nayapara Village under the Sabrang Union is known as the main Yaba market.”
“Shamsul Alam and his younger brother Abu Tayub control the illegal drugs trade in Sabrang. Alam, who used to fish at the Bay of Bengal a year ago, became a rich man within a year. He was arrested several times, but he never served in jail for longer than a month.”
According to the law enforcement agencies, “Alam continually gets re-involved in illegal drugs peddling as soon as he gets released from jail.”
Three-to-four persons from Maungdaw of Arakan State, Burma, supply Yaba to Alam, said a source from Maungdaw on condition of anonymity.
Aphrodisiac tablets like Yaba are coming from Burma into Bangladesh mainly by boats, including small boats, fishing boats, cattle carrying trawlers, and small goods carrier ships, said a trader from Shapuri Dip who asked not to be named.
“Women and children are also used by the Yaba traders to traffic the illegal drugs from Teknaf to Chittagong, Dhaka, and elsewhere in the country.”
Some other Yaba traders are Rafique and Shafique, sons of Motaleb, Md Amin, Nurul Amin, and Abul Kalam of Dil Para (village) of Teknaf. Hussain, owner of the Sky View Hotel in town, was also arrested twice in Dhaka with huge caches of smuggled Yaba tablets, said a local from Teknaf who declined to be named.
Though the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and other concerned authorities have been trying to stop the flow of narcotic drugs, Yaba tablets continue to enter to Bangladesh from Burma. Burma is the major source of methamphetamine tablets for the Bangladesh market.
There are “strong international criminal and financial networks controlling Bangladesh’s drug supply chain,” said ASM Shapan, a former adviser to the caretaker government.
Bangladesh lies between two countries, India and Bangladesh, from which illegal drugs comes to Bangladesh, and the country has become a big market for narcotic drugs, said a local leader from Cox’s Bazaar.
A town dweller from Maungdaw said, “The main heroine smugglers are the Nasaka (Burma’s border security force), army, police, and Sarapa (Military Intelligence) officers. They carry Yaba from Shan State, Burma, to the border area.
