8 Myanmar nationals held with yaba in Cox’s Bazar

Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard have detained eight Myanmar citizens with two lakhs of yaba tablets from a boat in the Bay of Bengal in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar.

The detainees are Dalia, 20, Robi Alam, 19, Alam, 25, Shafiqul, 28, Noor, 25, Noor-e-Alam, 40, Ali Ahmed, 20, and Nurul Amin, 25 and all of them hailed from Akyab district of Myanmar, said Lt Commander Saiful Islam, staff officer (operation) of Coast Guard (east zone).

Acting on tip-off that smugglers by a trawler were entering Bangladesh with a consignment of yaba, a team of coastguards (east zone) conducted a drive in deep sea near Saint Martin's Island around 11:30pm, our Cox’s Bazar correspondent reports quoting Lt Col Saiful.

During the drive, the team recovered two lakhs of yaba pills worth Tk 6 crore from an engine-run boat and detained eight Myanmar nationals from the vessel, said Saiful Islam.

The detainees were handed over to Teknaf Model Police Station after two separate cases -- one for smuggling drugs and another for intruding Bangladesh illegally -- were filed against them, said Pradip Kumar Das, officer-in-charge of the local police station.