The road to Dhaka is the Grand Trunk Road of profits. Money paid for illegal drugs in the city of the Mughals subverts the state but subsidises gainful employment for marginal groups in rural places forgotten by the centre.
Your Dhaka Tribune correspondents are weighed down by these thoughts as they watch a passenger with an illegal beer in hand on board the Dhaka-bound Suborna Express that departs Chittagong at 6:45am.
We are neither shocked by the sight, nor curious. It is all very humdrum: the passenger bought the beer from a group of men working out of the toilet, who share their profits with Railway staff and police. Trains are among the easiest places in the country to enjoy banned substances, we now know.
But as we rumble towards the capital, we marvel at a network so precise that it can position smugglers next to trains at the exact moment that they pass and so powerful that armed policemen see nothing in their gunsights and timetables are altered with clockwork regularity.
From the hinterland we travel towards the capital, paralleling the route taken by the contraband we have seen spirited across the border and sped towards markets across the country.
The great emporium is, of course, Dhaka, which accounts for the lion’s share of the Tk700 million that is spent on illegal drugs in Bangladesh every day, according to a 2013 World Heath Organisation report.
In May 2013, the Dhaka Tribune reported that over six million Bangladeshis consumed illegal drugs and that the drug trafficking business employed over 100,000 people.
As we roll into the capital, we watch a woman smuggling phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup illegal in Bangladesh but not in neighbouring India, and some smuggled Indian Horlicks get off the train.
While speaking to her on the journey, she said the price of her goods would go up by a third the minute she lands at a station because she will have to pay off Railway and local police staff.
Smuggling’s beating heart
Nearly 2,500 wanted criminals, who have either fled from police custody or are on bail, have allegedly divided Dhaka city into 800 spots to control the narcotics business.
The Narcotics Control Department (NCD), Detective Branch (DB) and regular police regularly update the list of criminals, many of whom are wanted in 10 or more cases, and send it to the Home Ministry every year.
Hardly any of them are currently in custody.
Special drives are conducted by law enforcement agencies but the arrestees of these drives are usually customers and low-end carriers of contraband drugs.
Drug kingpins and local ring leaders are rarely felled or rounded up.
According to a Detective Branch list, there are over 800 narcotics sale spots in the capital: 74 in Ramna, 90 in Lalbagh, 115 in Wari, 125 in Mirpur, 112 in Gulshan, 68 in Uttara, 122 in Motijheel and nearly 100 in Tejgaon.
A year ago, the number of spots was 542.
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Sources claimed that local police and narcotics officials were aware of these narcotics sale outlets but that syndicates have bought their silence.
In the past, narcotics syndicates were run solely by godfathers but in recent times, the trend has changed and around 10% of retail narcotics outlets are run by godmothers, investigators have found.
Detective Branch sources said 85 spots out of 800 are now under the control of godmothers.
There are around 500 trained woman carriers under the leadership of the new godmothers who not only carry the illicit goods but also sell directly to customers.
Monwar Ara is a listed godmother in the Lalbagh area of the capital. Her team of women drug sellers includes Munni, Tagar, Tamanna and Mouri.
After a difficult search, the Dhaka Tribune tracked Mouri down in front of the central jail. She said she was there to supply prisoners with their drugs of choice.
Drug users includes the well-heeled and thugs alike. Bangladesh has an estimated six million users, with men outnumbering women four to one.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch, said people from various professions are involved in drug syndicates, including private university teachers and students.
“A major criminal syndicate targets young members of high-class families to sell drugs so that they can get permanent customers and spread their network at the private universities.”
Some 32 types of illegal narcotics are available in the capital, law enforcers told the Dhaka Tribune.
Of these, yaba is the most popular, followed by heroin, marijuana, codeine, phensedyl, pethidine, morphine, a variety of other painkillers and alcoholic beverages, which are banned here.
Free reign for drug lords
According to official sources, some 30,000 drug cases are pending for trial in court, of which 20,000 are under investigation by the police and Rapid Action Battalion, and 8,000 are pending in the hands of the Department of Narcotics Control.
Cases do make it to trial but a lack of proper witnesses and evidence often results in the accused getting bailed.
Police said bailed accused are often repeat offenders.
Drug lords are rarely named, let alone charged.
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Commissioner Monirul of DB police, also the Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson, said special drives to stop drug trafficking have improved the situation compared to earlier periods.
DNC Deputy Director Rabiul Islam said drives by his agency’s officials had also helped the situation in the capital to improve.
The pyramid of power erected by the black market extends from the steps of parliament house right down to station platforms in the rural hinterland where ticket checkers are busy averting their eyes.
Women, the disabled, children and transgender people on smuggling runs fill trains up at certain times of the day, everyday, but never buy a ticket.
Stations, trains and government cars have been pressed into the service of smugglers. National borders are revolving doors greased by bribery, the laws books an anthology of fiction.
Finally at the end of the line and a month-long investigation, the Dhaka Tribune spoke to a high official of Railway police, who asked not to be named.
Calling widespread smuggling an open secret, he said: “Even if you try to conduct a raid, your second officer will inform the smugglers and the raid will yield nothing.”