Authorities in Bangladesh have made a record seizure of methamphetamine tablets that they say were made in Myanmar, AFP news agency reported.
The 2.8 million tablets, worth an estimated US$10.5 million were seized in police raids at a railway station in Dhaka and in the port city of Chittagong, police said on January 18.
“This is the biggest seizure of yaba tablets in Bangladesh,” said police Rapid Action Battalion spokesperson, Major Rumman Mahmud, using the Thai word for methamphetamine.
Three suspected traffickers were arrested, he said, adding that the drugs were made in Myanmar.
Methamphetamine has become popular among young people in Bangladesh, which has a population of 160 million, AFP said.
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Police in Teknaf, on the border with Myanmar, and the Bangladesh Navy have in recent months seized hundreds of thousands of yaba tablets from traffickers using land and sea routes.
“The Myanmar-Teknaf border was the main trafficking route when the drug cartel introduced yaba in Bangladesh. But now they are mainly using sea routes after many of their consignments were seized on land,” Teknaf police chief Ataur Rahman Khan told AFP.
