Teknaf Bangladesh:  Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) seized 800 Yaba tablets from a passenger on his way to Cox’s Bazar from Teknaf, a border town of Bangladesh, yesterday.   

Acting on a tip off, a section of BDR personnel from Moricha check post found 800 Yaba tablets from a passenger’s body, while they were checking people in the minibus.

The smuggler was identified as Rofique (22), son of Abdu Salam, from Nataung Para (village) of Teknaf union, Bangladesh. After interrogation, the arrested was sent to Ramu police station in Cox’s Bazaar district at around 10 pm.  

Yaba tablets come to Bangladesh from Burma, though BDR and other authorities have been trying to stop the inflow of narcotic drugs.  Burma is a major source of Methamphetamine tablets known as Yaba. Seizures are frequent on the Burma-Bangladesh border, but yet it is smuggled in from Burma.

There are “strong international criminal and financial networks controlling Bangladesh’s drug supply chain,” said a former adviser to the care taker government ASM Shapan.

Bangladesh is between two countries, India and Burma, from which narcotic drugs come to Bangladesh, turning it into a big market, said a local elder from Teknaf.  

In 2008, Bangladesh seized 2.3 tons of cannabis, according to an INCB report.

“The main heroin smugglers are Nasaka (Burma’s border security force), the Burmese Army, police and Sarapa (Military Intelligence) officers. They carry heroin or Yaba tablets from upper Burma, especially from Shan State,” a trader from Maungdaw town said.  

A court in Bangladesh yesterday sentenced two people to life term in prison for smuggling Phensidyl. Opium, Marijuana, and Phensidyl have been smuggled to Bangladesh from India while heroin or Yaba tablets come from Burma.