Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Maungdaw police are using Yaba as a tool to extort money from residents, according to an aide from Maungdaw police station.
With heavy demand of Yaba in Bangladesh and India, Maungdaw, the border town of Burma and Bangladesh has become the main transit point. Some junta officers in Maungdaw, who want easy money, have organized some local residents for Yaba trafficking, the aide said.
On July 20, police personnel led by Assistant Sub Inspector Shwe Maung (Surveillance) arrested Rashid from Shweza village market on the allegation of trafficking Yaba. After taking 200,000 Kyat, he was released, said an eyewitness in the market.
On the same day at midnight, the officer with his team went to the village, and forced open the door of Ahhzawlla alias Younous’ house and arrested him for involvement in drug trafficking. The officer demanded five million Kyats. But, Younous was released after giving two million Kyats. The officer told the village authorities that Younous’ name was in the traffickers list of the District Police Commissioner, Hla Myo Shine and he had ordered the arrest.
A Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) team from Teknaf BDR camp went to Sabrang village of Teknaf union and seized 1,491 Burmese Yaba tablets from two persons, Noor Amin (23), son of Ali, from Maungdaw Township and Ibrahim Khalil (25), son of Sayed Ahmed, from Naya Para of Sabrang union, Bangladesh who brought it from Burma on July 15.
The police department and other officials are involved in drug trafficking to earn easy money with the help of local partners, where the officers carry the drug from Burma proper to northern Arakan, Maungdaw and the local residents involved in drug trade carry it to Bangladesh, said a school teacher from Maungdaw.
But, sometimes, the officer in the security department in Maungdaw play a double role in the drug trafficking network, the teacher said.
The heroin smugglers are Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) or Sarapa (Military Intelligence) or the army or police officers of Maungdaw Township. They carry heroin or Yaba tablets from Shan State through their agents and send it to Bangladesh with the help of collaborators, said a trader from Maungdaw town on condition of anonymity.
Yaba, or 'crazy medicine' in Thai, Bhul Bhuliya in India and Shabu in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, is a tablet form of methamphetamine, and a very powerful stimulant. Introduced to East Asia during World War II to enhance soldiers' performance, methamphetamine has become increasingly popular in East Asia, particularly among young people. Yaba is now the main form of methamphetamine abused in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam and Myanmar, where it is manufactured.
Yaba is produced in a round pill form. They are brightly colored in red, orange or lime green and carry logos such as "R" or "WY". They are small and round, roughly 6mm in diameter, which means they can be packed inside a regular drinking straw for easy transportation or in a reusable 'mint' container.
Yaba tablets seized in Burma-Bangladesh border
The drug has been spreading towards the Indian subcontinent since 2007. A record 1,200,000 Yaba tablets were confiscated in Bangladesh where there is a potentially very large market, according to United Nation Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) report on May 19, 2008.
"Yaba users experience an intense burst of energy, followed by increased activity, decreased appetite and a general sense of well being," said Dr Yusuf Merchant, head of Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and Research Centre (DAIRRC) from Mumbai.
Jacky, a hard-core drug addict with friend Nong share a tablet of meth, called 'yaba' or mad medicine. Photographs for TIME by Jonathan Taylor
Bangladesh’s counter narcotics operations received a huge boost in late October 2007, when the RAB made one of the largest drug busts in the country’s history. In a raid on a Dhaka office the RAB seized about 130,000 Yaba tablets, with a street value of more than $1 million, and large amounts of drug-making equipment and raw materials. RAB officers arrested a man suspected of being a leading drug baron. One immediate result of the raid was to send the street price of Yaba from 200 to 300 Taka a tablet to 700 Taka ($10), or more, according to a report of the State Department, USA.
Yaba-pills inside clear plastic tubes
Drugs seized by the department from January through September 2006 (latest statistics) are as follows: 18 kg of heroin (compared to 16.3 kg in all of 2006 and 20.2 kg in 2005); 1,373 kg of marijuana (compared to 1,345 kg in 2006 and 1,589 kg in 2005); more than 20,000 bottles of Phensidyl, a codeine-based, highly addictive cough syrup produced in India; 215 ampoules of Pethedine, an injectable opiate with medical application as an anesthetic; and 5,652 tablets of Yaba. The RAB reported seizing nearly 133,000 tablets of Yaba in 2007 through October, almost all of which came from the one Dhaka raid, compared to about 5,000 tablets in all of 2006 and less than 1,000 tablets in 2005. Heroin seizures by RAB through October 2007 were 19.8 kg, compared to 38.5 kg in 2006 and 341 kg in 2005. More than 80,000 bottles of Phensidyl were seized through October, compared to nearly 190,000 bottles in 2006 and about 120,000 bottles in 2005, the report stated.
