Bangladesh Coast Guard has claimed to have recovered 4.55 lakh pieces of contraband yaba pills in Teknaf upazila early today.

Tipped off, a team of Teknaf Coast Guard Station (East Zone) conducted a drive in the Bay of Bengal along the coast of Chera Dwip of St Martin’s Island around 1:45am and recovered the yaba tablets from a boat, according to a press release issued in this regard.

The BCG members signaled the boat, which was coming from the direction of Myanmar, to halt. However, instead of pulling over, the boatmen dropped some polythene sacks in the water and rushed away from the spot towards the direction it came from, the release read.

The coast guards immediately recovered the sacks and found the yaba pills inside them, it added.

Meanwhile, coast guards also recovered 32 bottles of alcohol in abandoned state from Syron Canal area of Teknaf around 5:45am.

The recovered yaba pills and alcohol bottles were handed over to Teknaf Police Station for further procedure.

On the February 16, a total of 102 yaba godfathers and dealers from Teknaf surrendered before the home minister and IGP in a rare instance in the country’s history as part of the programme to build a drug-free society.