“BGB accused Faruk Hossain, 28, hailed from Nayapara village under Teknaf police station as they were informed that Faruk had assigned someone to bring the tablets from Burma and filed a case at Teknaf police station.”

A BGB team chased the boat around 9:30 am the smugglers left the packet of Yaba tablets in the river and fled by their boat.

Similarly, some 13, 585 pieces of Yaba tablets were seized in two events in Cox’s Bazar on January 5 night and early January 6, according to BGB officials.

BGB recovered around 12, 000 pieces of Yaba tablets from an abandoned boat in the Naf River in Chowdhury para of Teknaf upazila on January 5, night.

Sensing presence of the BGB members, smugglers fled the spot leaving the items, said BGB 42 Battalion Commander Lt Col Zahid Hasan.

“The drugs were being smuggled to Bangladesh from Burma.”

A case was filed with Teknaf Police Station accusing two people in this connection.

Meanwhile, Rapid Action Battalion detained two people with 1,585 pieces of Yaba tablets from Chakmarkul in Ramu Upazila of Cox’s Bazar early January 6.

The smugglers and peddlers seem unstoppable. Law enforcers said most of the offenders get bail within days of arrests and get back to their illegal trade.

“Absence of legal provision for Yaba smuggling and mobile court measures in Narcotic Control Act, 1990, are also causing the increase in smuggling and peddling of this deadly drug,” said Lt Colonel Zahid Hasan, commanding officer of Border Guard Bangladesh 42 Battalion.

Police and Detective Branch, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Coast Guard and Directorate of Narcotics Control in their separate drives seized 2,09,586 Yaba tablets and arrested 275 offenders in October, 2012.

In August, the figures were 38,024 tablets and 235 arrests, said sources.