Law enforcement agencies have seized over 20 million yaba pills last year, which investigators say they believe to be one-third of the smuggled “crazy medicine”, as it often called.
Law enforcing agencies said they had recovered some 2,32,08,855 yaba pills in 2015.
Of them, police recovered some 1,34,26,228 yaba pills – among them 90,00,000 were seized by RAB.
BGB recovered 50,56,410 yaba pills, Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) 33,79,880 pieces and Coastguard 13,46,337 pieces. Altogether 58,854 persons including suspected smugglers and drug lords were also arrested.
Yaba was first manufactured by the Nazis to keep troops awake for days during WWII. Methamphetamine use has seen a sharp rise in South and East Asia in recent years. Regular use of the drug has been linked to lung and kidney disorders, hallucinations and paranoia.
DNC Deputy Director Mukul Jyoti Chakma (DMP region) told the Dhaka Tribune that yaba hauls increased last year. “But the number is still believed to be one third of the total.”
About 7.72 crore yaba pills were presumably smuggled into Bangladesh in 2015.
Mukul was speaking after a media briefing yesterday following last Sunday’s yaba haul at Chawkbazar and Kamrangirchar. Six person were arrested.
DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said yaba was smuggled in from Myanmar – the biggest producer of methamphetamine tablets and a hotbed of narcotics production. Sources said around three million yaba pills enterd Bangladesh through the Myanmar border every day.
The Dhaka Tribune ran a detailed report – Inside the yaba trade – on January 30.