DHAKA: Bangladesh Navy seized 140,000 yaba pills worth Tk7.5 crore in a fishing boat from the outer anchorage area of Chittagong Port here the other day. The persons carrying the contraband item managed to flee.
Commander Atikur Rahman, in-charge of Bangladesh Navy’s Anti-Smuggling Cell in Chittagong, said a team of the cell was patrolling the outer anchorage area around 1am, when they noticed a fishing boat carrying people, and approached it when its movement seemed suspicious.
“But sensing the navy’s presence, the boatmen and others jumped into the water and swam to the shore. The navy recovered the yaba pills after searching the boat,” he added.
The yaba pills and boat were later handed over to Chittagong customs house. The navy official also said measures would be taken as per the law in this regard.
Earlier, navy personnel in separate drives seized 90,000 yaba pills on December 25, 2013, 220,000 pills on September 15, 2013 and 30,000 pills on June 22, 2013 at the same area in the Bay of Bengal.
Last year, the navy and the coast guard in separate drives seized around 1.1 million yaba pills, most of which were recovered from the Karnaphuli estuary and the Chittagong Port’s outer anchorage area, sources at navy and coast guard said.
Sources at the navy said the smugglers now use the Karnaphuli estuary as the substitute of their old route through the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf. They use mostly fishing trawlers and fishermen to smuggle in the contraband items for them.
Sources at the Anti-Smuggling Cell said it is difficult to trace the smuggler boats in the outer anchorage of the port as there are a huge number of fishing trawlers, apart from merchant vessels, roaming around in the area.
Smugglers are using the sea route to bring in yaba pills from Myanmar as it is cheaper and safer, sources said.
There are 37 yaba factories in Mongdue city of Myanmar, closest to the Bangladesh border, from where yaba is smuggled into the country, said Chowdhury Imrul Hasan, superintendent inspector at the Chittagong metropolitan region under the Department Narcotics Control.