Department of Narcotics Control [DNC] has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs to form a ‘Special Force’ with the skilled members of different security agencies to combat alarming drug smuggling into the country and to catch the godfathers.
In line with the government’s zero tolerance policy, the NDC has also sent a list of 3,200 drug smugglers to the ministries concerned and Prime Minister’s Office to get formal approval before launching a massive drive against the narcotics dealers, officials said on Thursday.
“The money that comes from drugs is strengthening militancy and terrorism. So, we’ve sent a proposal to the Home Ministry to form a Special Force and a Special Zone to root out the problem. If the plan is approved, we can nab the godfathers without major obstacles,” Director General of DNC Salahuddin Mahmud said.
The narcotics department has taken the initiative at a time when Yaba smuggling has become a major concern to the government high ups where about two million Yaba pills are consumed across the country daily. The Yaba pills usually enter the country through crossing the Bangladesh and Myanmar border.
The DNC DG further said that a list of 3,200 drug dealers has been prepared in three tiers. Of them, in the first row who patronizes the drug business behind the scene; in the second row the local and regional godfathers; and in the third row the retail dealers.
Officials said the DNC only in March month seized 66,181 Yaba tablets from different parts of the country. In combined, the total quantity of recovered Yaba by the BGB, RAB, police and other agencies was at least ten times higher.
“Bangladesh is in a bilateral cooperation with Myanmar to draw an end of Yaba trading. But the country [Myanmar] is yet to show any positive sign to do so,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal recently said.
“We have talked to Myanmar government about it. But Myanmar is not responding us to stop Yaba trading. Whereas, Bangladesh has never been involved in Yaba manufacturing nor engaged in any other narcotic production in the country,” he said.
Home Ministry officials said that earlier smuggling of Phensidyl drug from India to Bangladesh was a common scenario. Now it is mostly stopped due to collaborative actions and cooperation from India, they added.
DNC officials told The New Nation, Yaba pills are being manufactured in at least 40 factories in Maungdaw, the western-most city of Myanmar, which separated Bangladesh by the Naf river.
They said, the Yaba smugglers have changed their route. They are now using small boats and fishing trawlers through the Karnaphuly waterways to transport the narcotics inside Bangladesh.
Officials said the smugglers earlier had preferred unloading 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.
Presently, 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.
