Maungdaw, Arakan State: A consignment of heroin was seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Maungdaw on May 6, said a source from Maungdaw.

On being tipped off, a section of DEA, raided Naing Naing’s house on May 5 night, the source said.

After searching the house, the DEA didn’t find any drugs but Naing Naing was taken to their office in the same quarter, for further interrogation, the source added.

The DEA interrogated him for a long time and didn’t find any evidence, but the DEA  had information about 2 kgs of heroin, which he had carried from Akyab to Maungdaw as a carrier for 600,000 Kyat, said an aide from the DEA office.

DEA had also information that Naing Naing had carried the heroin to Maungdaw, but, he didn’t receive his fees, which he and the drug trafficker had already agreed upon. So Naing Naing didn’t handover the consignment to the trafficker, the aide said.

As a result, the drug trafficker informed a DEA source and it arrested Naing Naing to recover the drug. The DEA told Naing Naing that if he told them where he hid the drug, the DEA will set him free and  give him money, the aide added.

The next day, Naing Naing confessed and showed the hiding place and named the other persons. The DEA recovered the drugs and arrested two other persons on May 6 in Buthidung Town.

At present, three persons are under arrest. People believe that the trafficker and DEA have a nexus.  

Naing Naing, is an Arakanese Rakhine, a helmsman of Buthiaung-Akyab of a boat named Shwe Nansee (Golden Rose), from quarter number 4, Maungdaw.