Two men and two women were arrested for being in possession of drugs in Maungdaw by joint security forces in a raid on Wednesday, said a police officer from Maungdaw on condition of anonymity.

"We caught them red-handed with 2,000 Yaba tablets. They were dealing in the tablets among themselves," he said.

Acting on a tip-off, the joint security forces raided a house in Ward Number 3 in Maungdaw at 2 pm on October 22. They arrested the four for dealing in drugs, but the main dealer evaded arrest because he reportedly received early information about the raid.

A town elder said, "Yes, the police arrested four drug dealers in our town, but the main drug dealer escaped arrest because he got information before the raid as he is a very close associate of police officers from the Maungdaw central police station."

The security forces are currently searching for the main drug dealer but have made no arrests so far.

The town of Maungdaw is a hotspot in western Burma for trafficking drugs into Bangladesh, and many people in the area are involved in the lucrative border trade.

According to a local source, Burmese-made Yaba has been increasingly trafficked to Bangladesh after Thailand cracked down on Yaba trafficking in the country a few years back.