Yaba 'godfather,' sibling held in Ctg

Detectives seized 13 lakh yaba tablets, worth Tk 45 crore, from a flat in Chittagong city's Halishahar and arrested two siblings in this connection early yesterday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of detectives raided the flat of Ashraf Ali, 47, who returned home from Saudi Arabia last year, on the fourth floor of a building in Shyamoli Residential Area around 2:30am, reports our Chittagong correspondent.

Moinul Islam, assistant commissioner of DB (West) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said they arrested Ashraf and his brother Md Hasan, 22, hailing from Teknaf in Cox's Bazar. Based on their information, police recovered 3 lakh yaba pills from the flat and 10 lakh from their car at parking space.

This is the biggest ever haul of yaba pills seized by the CMP, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (Port) Abu Bakar Siddique.

A case was filed with Halishahar Police Station in this connection.

In January 2016, Rapid Action Battalion seized 27.5 lakh yaba tablets from a trawler in the deep sea, around 100 miles north of Patenga.

In three other drives in Dhaka and Satkhira, one lakh more yaba pills were seized and seven more people were arrested.

Chittagong police said Ashraf, who worked at his elder brother's shop in Saudi Arabia from 1998 to 2017, got acquainted with Myanmar national Abdur Rahim at that time.

Rahim later introduced him to another yaba dealer from Myanmar named La-mim, who trained Ashraf in smuggling yaba into Bangladesh.

“Ashraf has become one of the godfathers in yaba syndicate and maintained strong ties with the Myanmarese yaba dealers,” said AC Moinul.

During primary interrogation, Ashraf admitted that he had already smuggled two or three consignments of yaba pills into Bangladesh from Myanmar through sea routes with the help of Rahim and La-mim.

Police suspected that he had amassed huge wealth and properties illegally.

Ashraf used to pay the Myanmar yaba syndicate via hundi, an illegal money transfer system, and sometimes on credit, AC Moinul said, adding that he also used to sell the yaba pills to different syndicates in Dhaka.

The police official said they were trying to find the yaba syndicates in Chittagong and Dhaka.

Ashraf returned to Bangladesh from Saudi Arabia in October last year and started the illegal business.

He earlier went to Myanmar by air twice or thrice; had a meeting with La-mim and smuggled into yaba consignments with the help of a “third party”, said Moinul.

“On April 7, Ashraf again left Dhaka for Yangon in Myanmar by air and held a meeting with La-mim there,” said AC Moinul, adding that during the meeting, Ashraf had a deal with the drug dealer and collected the 13 lakh yaba tablets.

“Though Ashraf went to Yangon by air, he returned to Bangladesh by sea along with the yaba pills,” said the police official.

As the sea was rough, he delayed his sea voyage for days and finally left Myanmar border on April 30 by a trawler. After six hours of journey, the trawler with the yaba pills reached St Martin's Island, said the police official, quoting Ashraf.

Ashraf then shifted the pills to a speedboat and started his journey to Chittagong. He brought the pills to Sitakunda on May 2, he added.

In Dhaka, Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) officials in two drives arrested four alleged drug peddlers, including two former private university students, with 80,000 yaba pills in Postogola area and Old Dhaka yesterday.

The students -- Imranul Haque, 25, and Taijul Khan, 27, are involved in the yaba trade for making a quick buck, DNC Director (operations) Syed Towfique Uddin Ahmed told a press briefing.

They were arrested along with 60,000 yaba tablets in Postogola area.

As Imranul's ancestral home is in Teknaf, he used to bring yaba tablets from there, the DNC official added.

Two other drug peddling suspects -- Shahidul and Irin -- were held from Old Dhaka with 20,000 yaba pills.

In another incident, detectives in a raid seized 20,000 yaba pills and arrested three suspected drug peddlers -- Abdus Sattar, Nazrul Islam and Sagar -- in Satkhira town yesterday.