One monk from Ahludawpay monastery and two Rohingyas from Buthidaung have been arrested by Maungdaw police for drug trafficking, according to a policeman. Officers found all three of the men in possession of Yabba tablets after conducting a raid on May 5.
“Police Inspector U Than Tin, Sub Inspector U Hla Thein, Constable Tun Tun and another constable raided the monastery and seized 165,000 Yabba (pills).”
However the officer claimed that U Than Tin and the other officers kept 100,000 pills for themselves, recording in their police report that they had found only 65,000 tablets.
The court ordered an arrest warrant for U Than Tin, U Hla Thein and the other two constables. U Than Tin was arrested in Akyab and U Hla Tin was nabbed in Maungdaw, but the other constables escaped from the station and are still at large, said the officer.
Most of the drug traffickers in Maungdaw are police officers, or other high officials who use locals to work as drug mules. Sometimes the police will arrest the carrier to detract attention from their own illegal activities, said one Maungdaw drug trafficker.
“Police are trafficking drugs openly in Maungdaw. Sometime they protect their carriers, but sometimes they bust them and send them to jail.”
