Three yaba factories found along Indian border

Bangladesh's Department of Narcotics Control has come to know about three yaba factories in India, along its border with Bangladesh. According to the department, the yaba tablets manufactured in these factories have been coming into Bangladesh over the past two years. These factories have been set up along the borders specifically to smuggle the drug into Bangladesh.

The narcotics control department has officially informed India's Narcotics Control Bureau about the matter and requested them to take action accordingly. This request was made during the seventh bilateral conference held virtually at a director general level between Bangladesh's Department of Narcotics Control and India's Narcotics Control Bureau.

The narcotics control department, at the meeting said that other than these three factories, yaba was also coming from Myanmar via various states in India, into Bangladesh. The drug traffickers were also using India's sea routes for the purpose. Bangladesh also informed the meeting that under various different names, phensidyl, heroin, cannabis, buprenorphine and other drugs were coming into Bangladesh from India.

At the meeting, according to sources, the Indian narcotics control bureau placed stress on capacity building, working together to stop the trafficking of drugs, exchange of intelligence and sharing information on inter-country drug traffickers.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, director general of the narcotics control department Abdus Sabur said that yaba is smuggled into Bangladesh from certain areas in India. India has been informed about the matter. The new routes for drug trafficking were also discussed with India.

Of the three yaba factories in India identified by the narcotics control department, two are in Cooch Behar and one in 24 Parganas, of West Bengal. The raw material amphetamine is brought from Myanmar for yaba to be manufactured in these factories.

According to information presented at the meeting, one of the factories in Cooch Behar is just 50 metres away from zero point at the Kurigram border. The owner of the factory is Md Al Amin Islam (35), the son of a local Abdul Samad. Another factory is just 400 metres within the border. That factory is owned by Nazrul Islam (35), son of local Hazrat Ali. The third factory is on the other side of the border from Satkhira, in 24 Parganas, 5km from the zero point. This factory is owned by a certain Dimple.

According to Bangladesh's officials, though three factories were specified in the meeting, there are many more. Outside of West Bengal, there are also factories in Assam and Meghalaya, according to intelligence reports. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) officers said that they have intelligence information about 11 yaba factories along the border in India. The information is being verified.

BGB's director (operations) Lt. Col. Faizur Rahman told Prothom Alo, there is intelligence information about yaba factories being set up at various places along the Indian border. BGB is stepping up its efforts to prevent drug trafficking.

Two officials of the narcotics control department, on condition of anonymity, told this correspondent that drug traders use India as a route to smuggle in yaba from Myanmar into Bangladesh. Yaba is first taken from Myanmar into India across the Mizoram border. Then it comes via Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam into Bangladesh. This has been going on for three years.

Researcher on narcotics and professor at North South University, M Emdadul Huq, told Prothom Alo that from the beginning of the eighties, drug traders had been manufacturing phensidyl in factories along the Indian border and sending these into Bangladesh. The country had been flooded with phensidyl at the time. This continues. He said, now if even yaba is made in India, that will be alarming for Bangladesh.