Onaisi Saeed, a business graduate from abroad, was enthusiastic about the unconventional drug market. He wanted to bring in new drugs and serve them to the people looking for it, particularly those well off.
Besides bringing in unconventional drugs like hemp, ecstasy, Adderall and fentanyl through different international courier services, he was also growing Kush, a potent drug, in containers in his rented apartment in Dhaka, with the aim of supplying them to affluent customers.
His arrest on Monday by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) brought the drug Kush to the limelight, as it was the first time the drug had been confiscated in Bangladesh.
Acting on a tip-off about ecstasy abuse, RAB raided a house in Gulshan and arrested the alleged kingpin. Following interrogation, RAB also came to know about Kush cultivation when it raided his rented house in Mohammadpur on Tuesday.
Different drugs, including 101g of Kush, 6g of hemp, 0.05g of molly, 1g of fentanyl, 18g of cocaine and 123 piece of ecstasy had been confiscated, along with $50,000 and Tk2.40 crore in cash from his possession, RAB said in a media briefing.
‘Drug scientist’
Coming from a well-off family, Saeed studied at reputed English medium schools before going to the US in 2001.
He completed his bachelors in business administration in the country and stayed there till 2007 before returning home. He went to Malaysia in 2012 to do his master’s in business administration and returned to Bangladesh after two years.
During his stay abroad, he explored new drugs and planned to introduce them in the home market, according to RAB.
“He became involved in his father’s textile business after returning home, but he left the enterprise in 2019 and engaged himself solely in the sale of unconventional drugs,” RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Khandaker Al Moin told journalists.
Saeed would research unconventional drugs that had a demand in the local market and had been supplying them for high-end parties and clubs, the RAB official said.
History of drug trading
While studying abroad, Saeed met a Bangladeshi who later supplied different drugs to Bangladesh through him.
Through his research, Saeed realized that ecstasy had a potential market in Bangladesh. He brought ecstasy as a first consignment and had been doing so since 2019. He used to sell around 50 ecstasy pills every month.
Other drugs – hemp, molly, Adderall and fentanyl – were brought to check market demand in the country and to set up a market for unconventional drugs.
He even brought Kush seeds and started growing it in a rented apartment in Mohammadpur in a temperature-controlled system.
“His first production of Kush was 300-400 grams, which cost him Tk2 lakh, but he sold each 100g of Kush for Tk3 lakh,” the RAB official said. “He wanted to export Kush abroad as well,” Moin added.
In most cases, Saeed used to bring in the products himself on his return from trips abroad. In other cases, he would use international courier services for import and deliver them to local customers at parties or clubs or close groups through members of his ring.
International drug ring
Saeed’s supplier abroad was a Bangladeshi man in Canada who sent shipments through international courier services.
The man, named Foysal from Dhaka’s Elephant Road, had been living in Thailand since 2016 before moving to Canada.
The packages were sent to addresses of Saeed’s relatives in Bangladesh and the payments were made either by Saeed during his foreign travels or through hundi.
“The amount of foreign currency seized from his possession indicates that he used to trade in drugs regularly,” RAB official Moin said.