The Yaba smugglers have changed their route. They are now using small boats and fishing trawlers through the Karnaphuli waterways to transport the narcotics inside Bangladesh.
In the latest incident, the members of the Bangladesh Coast Guard [BCG] recovered 2 lakh pieces of Yaba tablets worth about Tk 10 crore from a small boat in the estuary of the Karnaphuli river in Chittagong in the small hours of Sunday.
It was the largest ever cache of drugs seized by the BCG on the riverine routes. Earlier on June 30, the BCG had seized 1.5 lakh pieces Yaba tablets along with a trawler at Swandip coast.
“A BCG team intercepted an engine-driven wooden boat near KAFCO in the Karnaphuli river at around 1:00am on Sunday. Later, we found 20 packets with 10 thousand Yaba tablet in each pack,” Commander AKM Maruf Hasan, Intelligence Office, BCG said. “The drug peddlers sensing the presence of the BCG team jumped into the river and swam ashore to escape arrest. Later, we recovered the Yaba tablets from the boat,” he said.
Security officials said the smugglers earlier had preferred to unload their consignments on the embankments of River Naf at Teknaf in the district of Cox’s Bazar and later had used land routes for its supply chain.
But now they are taking their consignments directly inside Chittagong using riverine routes considering waterways safer for transporting the narcotics due to tight security at different points on the land routes, they said.
“The smugglers have changed their strategy. The consignments of Yaba tablets are being carried from Myanmar by trawlers and small fishing boats, and supplied to different districts of Bangladesh including the capital city Dhaka using waterways,” Captain Mahmud Hossain Zia, Director Operations, BCG told The New Nation on Sunday night.
He said about 37 Yaba factories had been established in Maungdaw in the western-most city of Myanmar, which separated Bangladesh by the Naf river.
” We have collected information on Yaba factories through our intelligence network and provided the list to the Home Ministry for action,” he added.
Earlier Dhaka and Yangun in a sector level meeting between BGB and Border Guard Police [BGP] of Myanmar on May 8 agreed to stop narcotic smuggling, especially Yaba, a highly intoxicating drug, though border of the two countries. But it did not work.
Referring to the issue, Captain Zia said, “So far as I know, the government has taken effort to discus the issue with Myanmar government through Foreign Ministry channel. We have urged the government to uproot the problem forever, otherwise it will destroy our society.”
Officials said the members of Border Guard Bangladesh [BGB] have also seized several consignments of Yaba in recent days from different parts of Teknaf.
When asked, Commanding Officer of the BGB-42 Lieutenant Colonel Abujar Al Jahid said they have increased patrol to prevent the entering of the drug and already have seized a huge quantity of Yaba in the last few days.
According to BGB, about4000 pieces of Yaba worth Tk 1 crore 20 lakh were recovered at Sabrang union of Teknaf on August 21. Besides, 20,000 Yaba tablets worth about Tk 60 lakh were seized by BGB at the embankment of Naf River on August 19.
The BGB men also seized 50,000 pieces of Yaba tablets worth about TK 1.5 crore from Mogpara area of Teknaf on August 17 while the police in separate drive recovered 15,000 Yaba tablets from Shikdarpara of Teknaf on August 16.
