For the first time, a yaba manufacturing plant has been discovered and busted in the country.
The Detective Branch (DB) of Police busted the plant in capital’s Jatrabari area yesterday and arrested four along with 1,265 pieces of yaba tablets.
Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner at the Media Centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said this was the first yaba manufacturing plant discovered in Bangladesh.
The detained are Ali Akhbar, 28, Md Sohel, 32, Md Rubel, 24, and Abdur Razzaq, 45.
From the den located on the ground floor of a building in Banshpotti of Jatrabari, a huge quantity of yaba manufacturing equipment were also recovered on Friday night.
Masudur Rahman said: “Among the detainees, Akhbar is the main manufacturer. He had been manufacturing yaba tablets at Rubel’s house while Razzak, Sohel and Rubel had been selling those in black market through different drugs dealers.”
According to DB officials, Akhbar who is a chemist by profession, had set up the plant for manufacturing yaba tablets and fake drugs.
Akhbar is a former student of chemistry department at Jagannath University. After completing his studies, he was appointed as a chemist at Beacon Pharmaceuticals but lost his job after being found to be involved with a fake drug manufacturing syndicate, said the DB officials.
Jahangir Hossain Matubbor, deputy commissioner at the east division of DB, said: “After losing the job, Akhbar was in jail for two years. However, right after being released, he resumed illegal activities and set up the plant for manufacturing of yaba tablets.
“He has the expertise for making yaba tablets with the exact smell that is found in the smuggled ones from Myanmar,” said Jahangir.
He said the ring led by Akhbar had been trading yaba tablets mixing both original and fake ones.
According to DB sources, yaba has emerged as the most consumed contraband drug in Bangladesh in recent years, surpassing Phensidyl which is mainly manufactured in India.
The intake of the yaba tablets is increasing day by day, particularly among the youth who are leaning towards it at an alarming rate.
According to the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), different law enforcement agencies including police, RAB, Border Guard Bangladesh, DNC and Coast Guards have seized a total of 129,644 pieces of yaba tablets in 2009, 812,716 in 2010, 1,360,186 in 2011, 1,951,392 pieces in 2012, and over 2,500,000 in 2013.
Meanwhile, around 2,300 pieces of yaba tablets were recovered by the Railway Police and RAB in separate drives from capital’s Kamalapur and Dakkhin Khan areas yesterday.
Abdul Majid Khan, officer-in-charge of General Railway Police (GRP) of Kamalapur station, said two persons – Shahida Begum, 37, and Alamgir Hossain – were held along with 30,1000 pieces of yaba tablets from the station’s platform.
On the other hand, RAB personnel arrested three – Omar Faruq Sheikh, 32, Jahangir Alam, 26, and Rakesh Mukharjee, 22 – from a house in capital’s Ambagan area under Dakkhinkhan police station and recovered 1,280 pieces of yaba tablets and Tk274,800 that were earned through selling yaba tablets.