Yaba trafficking under the guise of a picnic

RAB has arrested six suspects for trafficking yaba during a ‘picnic’ trip from Jashore to Cox’s Bazar Teknaf and St Martin’s Island.

RAB detained their bus in Chattogram city’s Shah Amanat Bridge area early on Saturday.

The detainees were identified as Md Atiar Rahman, 55, Bablu, 47, Iqbal Hossain, 37, Aminur Rahman, 25, Jewel, 39, and Masud Rana, 31. Jewel was the bus driver.

RAB-7 ASP Md Mashkur Rahman told bdnews24.com that law enforcers found 240,000 yaba tablets hidden in the luggage compartment of the bus.

“Atiar Rahman is the owner of the bus. He organised a picnic. They came to Cox’s Bazar from Jashore town with about 40 people for a pleasure trip. They then went to Teknaf.”

According to the RAB official, the other travellers went on to St Martin’s Island but the six on the bus went to Teknaf to pick up the yaba.

“The six of them have confessed to trafficking yaba. We are investigating the rest,” Mashkur said.

“This is a novel case,” he said. “We’ve never heard of anyone trafficking yaba while on a picnic.”