Police claim to have seized the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the first time in Bangladesh while investigating the death of Dhaka University (DU) student Hafizur Rahman.
They have also arrested three private university students on charges of peddling the hallucinogenic drug in the capital.
The arrested are North South University students Sadman Sakib Rupol, 25, and Ashab Wadud Turjo, 22, and Independent University student Adib Ashraf, 23. Police have recovered 200 LSD blotter papers from their possession.
Police say the drug was being sold through two secret Facebook groups — run by Rupol — comprising over a thousand members.
They had been imported from the Netherlands through online transactions, Additional Commissioner (Detective Branch) AKM Hafiz Akhtar told a press conference.
Rupol told detectives that the drug had been brought into the country through parcel service, each blot being sold for Tk3,000-4,000.
The Detective Branch (DB) of police (Ramna division) said Hafizur, 24, and three of his friends took LSD in the Curzon Hall area on the DU campus on the night of May 15.
Under the influence of the drug, Hafizur went away from there and later hacked himself with a machete, which he had seized from a coconut seller, near the main gate of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) adjacent to the Central Shaheed Minar.
Also Read - DU students demand proper investigation into Hafizur's death
A patrol team of Shahbagh police took him to DMCH, but he died on the operating table, according to DB officials.
As the police were unable to identify the youth at the time, his body was kept at the hospital morgue.
He was eventually identified by his family eight days later.
Police are currently interrogating the three friends of Hafizur in this connection.
Extremely potent
The psychedelic drug LSD creates illusions in the mind of the taker. The hallucinogens recovered by police were of the first category and were similar to postal stamps in appearance.
LSD is sold under more than 80 street names, including acid, blotter, doses, dots, trips, mellow yellow, as well as names that reflect the designs on the sheets of blotter paper, according to Drugs.com.
It is an extremely potent hallucinogen — so much so that its doses tend to be in the microgram (mcg) range.
The drug is illegal and is classified as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States, meaning that it currently has no accepted medical use and has a high potential for abuse.
