To protect high-value and high-risk drug consignments, official emblems, official vehicles and even officials themselves are pressed into the service of drug trafficking syndicates.
Symbols of officialdom are frequently used to speed drugs across the border from India and Myanmar – sometimes with the connivance of government officials and political elites, law enforcement agencies have said.
An investigation by several intelligence agencies has found that drug smuggling in Bangladesh is run by over 1,200 godfathers across the country of whom at least 87 are leaders of the Awami League, Jubo League, Chhatra League and Sramik League who provide backing to drug traffickers in the Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions.
The Department of Narcotics Control uses this list to conduct anti-narcotics operations and as a basis for further investigation.
Despite a zero tolerance policy on drug trafficking, the government has so far been able to catch only low-level drug carriers, while the drug trade’s dons evade arrest and investigation.
Leaders of the Awami League and its associate bodies allegedly pocket crores of Taka by using their political influence to back drug traffickers.
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The intelligence list names Cox’s Bazar Awami League MP Abdur Rahman Bodi, his brothers Abdul Shukkur and Mujibur Rahman, step-brothers Abdul Amin and Faisal Rahman, in-laws Akhter Kamal, Shahed Kamal, uncle Haider Ali, cousin Kamrul Islam Russel and nephew Nipu for their involvement in drug trafficking.
No action has been taken against them. Law enforcers reportedly later dropped Bodi’s name from the list.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told the media in early September that there was no evidence that Bodi had been involved in drug smuggling.
Other godfathers named in the list include former Cox’s Bazar MP Mohammad Ali’s son Mohammad Rashed, Teknaf upazila Jubo League Secretary Nur Hossain, Teknaf Sadar Union AL leader Jafor Ahmed, AL leader Khurshida Karim, Jabed Iqbal, Chhatra League leader Ali Ahmed, Abu Bakkar, Didar, Baktiar and Nurul Amin.
Drug dons allegedly spend crores to buy the silence and protection of law enforcement officials.
It is not uncommon for decals and signs denoting that a vehicle is the official conveyance of an executive magistrate, army official or district administration official to be plastered onto vehicles used for smuggling.
For example, on November 7, police confiscated 300 bottles of phensedyl in Comilla from a car owned by a senior assistant secretary of the Public Administration Ministry. The official was not in the car during the drug bust.
612 ways to make a fortune
According to the Home Ministry, drugs including yaba, phensedyl and heroin enter the country through 612 border points under the supervision of the godfathers.
Intelligence sources mention 45 routes near the Myanmar-Cox’s Bazar border used to traffic yaba into the country.
Law enforcement sources said there were around 38 yaba factories in the border areas of Myanmar, reportedly capable of producing three million tablets a day, and 40 phensedyl factories just across the Indian border.
Lt Col Abujar Al Jahid, commanding officer of Border Guard Bangladesh 42, said his force was especially vigilant along the 54-kilometre border with Myanmar.
Take A Look: A railway station run by smugglers
The intelligence report said several leaders of associate bodies of the ruling party control the narcotics trade in the capital.
According to the report, Tauhid Babu, organising secretary of Dhaka city (South) committee of the Chhatra League, controls the yaba business in the Khilgaon area; former vice-president of the Sabujbagh unit of the Chhatra League Ripon Barua operates the Sabujbagh area drug market; while in Motijheel, a major portion of the drug market was operated by a Sramik League leader whose name was not mentioned.
Despite repeated attempts, Tauhid could not be reached for comment. Ripon told the Dhaka Tribune that claims of his involvement in the drug business were “false rumours” spread by his political rivals.
Police sources said the yaba trade in Rampura was controlled by Chhatra League local unit President Moazzem Hossain Tapu, who according to a DB police investigation killed retired police official Fazlul Karim on August 29 last year over the retired policeman’s campaign against the drugs business in the area.
Tapu, who is on the run from the police, could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this year, police arrested several political leaders for possessing yaba tablets. In May, former president of the Chhatra League’s Dhanmondi unit Nazimuddin Babu was arrested with 55 yaba tablets. On June 10, Sabujbagh police arrested the Sramik League’s Uttara Bank union Secretary Imran Haque Khan and recovered 38 yaba from his possession.
The home minister said the arrests were proof that the government would not shelter anyone, irrespective of party affiliation.
Although Police Headquarters recently announced the creation of a joint task force on drugs with India, no such initiative has been taken with Myanmar, the main source of yaba entering Bangladesh.
Conceal and carry
Smugglers are recruiting Imams, snake charmers, transgender and physically disabled people to work as carriers for drugs as ordinary carriers, mostly women and children, become increasingly exposed to scrutiny.
The situation is so dire that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs last year decided to visit border areas to look into the involvement of Imams and the madrasa students in the drugs trade.
Vegetables and fruits are being hollowed out to conceal drugs, investigators said, adding that drugs coming from India have even been hidden inside the stomachs of cattle.
The Narcotics Control Department recently arrested a woman at Dhaka’s Kamalapur Railway Station as she tried to transport two kilogrammes of cannabis inside a pile of vegetables.
Rabiul Islam, deputy director of the Narcotics Control Department, said smugglers are constantly finding new ways of moving their illegal product.
In 2011, RAB arrested three people on the Dhaka-Mymenshingh highway as they attempted to transport 400 bottles of phensedyl in a coffin inside an ambulance.
Drugs have been found inside computer monitors, CPUs, televisions, car batteries, gas cannisters, oxygen cylinders, fish tanks and spare tires.
Dressed for success
During the Dhaka Tribune’s investigation into smuggling syndicates, a very particular sort of drug carrier was seen in action.
Dubbed “jackets” by intelligence sources, these phensedyl carriers are dressed to the nines, rain or shine.
No matter whether the forecast is for a sunny day, rainy weather or winter fogs, these train travellers in the north of the country, are seen carrying stylish, if not always seasonable jackets.
The inner pockets of the smugglers’ jackets are stuffed with phensedyl bottles which are then placed inside the casing of the air conditioners of the first class coach of trains for the duration of the trip.
Groups of 10 to 12 carriers travel together and have the capacity to transport up to a thousand bottles of phensedyl with them at a time.