We are horrified to learn that two members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police have sold off more than 700,000 seized yaba tablets and made a profit of Tk 8 crore! That the very custodians of the law are now increasingly engaged in criminal activities is a very ominous sign for law enforcement in the country. Such acts cannot be tolerated because the illegal yaba trade has been declared the number one problem in narcotics by the government! Reportedly, there are ongoing investigations into the matter.

The whole matter could easily have gone unnoticed had it not been due to the bungling of the DB men implicated in the matter, who had crossed the line and threatened the Cox's Bazar Officer-in-Charge who had brought the matter to the attention of the police HQ in the first place back in December, 2017. The audacity of these policemen-turned-criminals cannot be underestimated because once we have law enforcers getting involved in narcotics peddling, the war on drugs is doomed to failure.

Yaba has become a scourge for our society given that these tablets are easy to transport and distribute. What these men donning official uniforms have done is to help sustain the drug habits of tens of thousands of people and probably helped create a new generation of addicts. Their actions have undermined painstaking efforts by narcotics agencies in the war on drugs which is already a very complicated affair and the last thing needed is the presence of bad eggs on the force to undo the work that has been done so far. They have not only tarnished the image of the police force, but have also added to the risk the society faces from drugs. They must be made examples of.