Falling prey to yaba rings

Drug dealers are luring Rohingyas into yaba rackets and using them as carriers, say officials of the Department of Narcotics Control.

Some traffickers even take the guise of refugees and smuggle in large consignments of the tablets. Law enforcers fear that consumption of yaba will surge when the lethal drug makes its way out of the camps.

Since the influx began on August 25, law enforcers arrested 12 Rohingyas with 30,200 yaba pills in Chittagong city.

“Most of the arrestees are just carriers lured into the racket by local drug peddlers,” Shameem Ahmed, deputy director (metro) of DNC, told The Daily Star.

“They were asked to hand over the pills to dealers in Chittagong. They were sent to the port city by buses.”

Police officers say the arrestees managed to get out of Leda, Noapara, Unsipara, Balukhali and Kutupalong refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

DNC's Chittagong division intelligence wing prepared a special report mentioning the recent cases and forwarded it to its headquarters in Dhaka on September 27.

The two-page report said local drug dealers had been paying the refugees to carry yaba pills from Cox's Bazar to elsewhere in the country. Some Rohingyas have snuck out of the camps with the drugs dodging law enforcers.

Seeking anonymity, an intelligence wing official of Chittagong DNC, said, “We came to know about the matter after arrests of Rohingyas in the city with yaba pills. An official was sent to Cox's Bazar to investigate and he found Rohingyas being enticed to drug peddling.”

The report mentioned that local drug dealers tell refugees that even if they are caught, they would get free food and shelter in jail.

 “As the refugees are left with little hope of a better life, some of them get involved in the drug racket,” said the official.

Zillur Rahman, assistant director (intelligence) of Chittagong DNC, said, “The special report on the issue has been sent to Dhaka with some suggestions. We are trying to find out who are luring the Rohingya refugees.”

Talking to The Daily Star, Maj Ruhul Amin, Rab company commander in Cox's Bazar, said, “Most of the people caught with yaba recently by police, Rab, BGB and Coast Guard are Rohingya carriers.”

He added that it was easy to lure Rohingyas into crimes as they have basic needs like food and shelter unfulfilled.

“Carrying of yaba pills by them will probably increase if the influx continues.”