RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) personnel have seized a consignment of 500,000 Yaba tablets and detained seven people from a fishing trawler at the outer anchorage of Chittagong port.
Published : 14 May 2015, 03:19 PM
RAB-7 chief Lt Col Mifta Uddin said the fishing trawler, ‘MT Hena’, was stopped on Wednesday night.
Those detained were all part of the trawler's crew -- Md Hannan, 40, Md Lokman, 33, Md Rasel, 30, Md Ilias, 18, Md Waliullah, 21, Md Riaj, 19, and Md Osman, 20.
RAB's Mifta Uddin said they raided the trawler based on a tip-off about ‘a huge quantity’ of Yaba in it.
“After searching the trawler we found 500,000 Yaba tablets, all carefully concealed in water barrels.”
The contraband was smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar, said the RAB official.
“Close to St. Martin there is an area named Sitar Matha where these Yaba tablets are loaded on to the trawlers. The consignment was to be passed on to another trawler in Chittagong.”
Mifta said the detained are being interrogated to find out others in the gang , especially the ring leader.
The huge haul on Wednesday night is claimed as the largest seizure of Yaba tablets by RAB in recent times.
Earlier in 2012, a joint team of RAB-1 and RAB-7 had seized 275,000 Yaba tablets from Khatunganj area.
On Feb 4, the navy seized a consignment of 1.5 million Yaba tablets, the largest haul so far, from a trawler named ‘FB Rajib’ at no. 1 buoy area in the outer anchorage of Chittagong port.
Meanwhile Mizzima reports that Myanmar Border Police had seized 570,000 Yaba methamphetamine tablets in Maungdaw Township in northern Rakhine state on May 5.
It also claimed that it was the first big seizure of Yaba tablets on the western Burma border this year.
A squad of police seized the tablets while it was on a patrol along the Myanmar- Bangladesh border area, a top police source told Mizzima.
The police team intercepted a car near Shwe Zar Post primary school and found 570,000 Yaba tablets in two bags.
Both the bags were under the driver's seat. Saw Shwe Tun alias Myo Wai Tun, who was driving the vehicle and Micle alias Micle Tun were detained.
Analysts say the Maungdaw-Teknaf-Cox's Bazar-Chittagong route is becoming the most preferred for narcotics smuggling on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
Yaba is also entering Northeast Indian states from Myanmar in ever larger quantities and some of that is making its way into northeastern Bangladesh.