Law enforcing agencies have recently seized a massive number of yaba pills from deep-sea fishing trawlers in a series of raids, as smugglers nowadays prefer the sea route to bring yaba pills into the country from Myanmar.
In the most recent drive, Bangladesh Coast Guard (East Zone) arrested a fisherman with 1,50,000 yaba pills at the outer anchorage area of the Bay of Bengal in Chittagong on Monday night.
Acting on a tip-off, the coast guard chased and nabbed Mohammad Aziz, 40, an alleged yaba smuggler, from a fishing trawler coming from Myanmar to the Sandwip channel around 11:30pm, said coast guard sources.
Earlier, on June 20, another coast guard team seized 30,000 yaba pills from a trawler on the Bay near Teknaf upazila, Cox’s Bazar.
On the same day, the Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police nabbed two men with 30,000 yaba pills at a motor shop in Chittagong city. Those pills had also been smuggled into the port city via a fishing trawler.
According to sources at different law enforcing agencies, smugglers are bringing yaba into the country from Myanmar via fishing trawlers, labelling the yaba packages as “parts” so that no one would be able to detect them.
As the law enforcers focused more on the land routes, smugglers opted for the water routes on the Karnaphuli River and the Bay of Bengal, said Assistant Commissioner Md Anwar Hossain of Detective Branch (Port Zone).
Quoting the arrested, Babul Akhter, additional deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch, said there were three active smuggling syndicates.
The first syndicate is in Myanmar. They hand over the yaba pills in a packet to the second syndicate, which is comprised of fishermen in Bangladesh. The fishermen then carry the pills via the Bay to land and supply the packets to the third syndicate, comprised of local mechanics, near the bank of Karnaphuli River. The mechanics then deliver the pills to the local dealers. Babul further explained that the smugglers now use the sea route as it is cheaper and safer.
Captain Shahidul Islam said the smugglers could easily convince the fishermen to carry the yaba packets, saying they were medicine, in exchange for more money. Most of the times, they did not know they were carrying contraband items.
“It is hard for the coast guard to patrol the entire area with limited resources, as the sea territory is vast,” he said.
Mukul Jyoti Chakma, deputy director of the Department of Narcotics Control in Chittagong metro region, said the smugglers used the sea route for quick and risk-free peddling as only the coast guard and Bangladesh Navy look over the sea, whereas the land routes were under surveillance by many forces.