5 held with 60,000 yaba pills in Patiya

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) conducted an operation in Patiya upazila, seizing 60,000 yaba pills and arresting five drug dealers.

Additionally, two microbuses used to transport the drugs were confiscated. The recovered yaba pills are worth about Tk1.8 lakh.

The arrestees are Md Abdullah Al Mamun, 41, of Lakshmipur Sadar; Md Main Uddin, 30, of Muradnagar, Cumilla; Md Rashedul Alam, 38, and Md Jasim Uddin, 41, of Patiya upazila; and Md Junaid Tanvir Tarafdar, 29.

Senior Assistant Director of RAB-7, A R M Mozaffar Hossain, said that on Saturday evening, RAB received a tip-off about yaba smuggling in two Hiace microbuses travelling from Cox’s Bazar to Chattogram.

A RAB team then set up a checkpoint on the Cox’s Bazar–Chattogram highway near Quader Filling Station under Patiya Police Station at around 8:30pm.

Sensing the checkpoint, the drug-laden vehicles tried to flee, but RAB members chased and intercepted one of the microbuses in front of Messrs Nazrul and Company Filling Station.

A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of 10 yaba pills, Tk2,43,515 in cash, and the arrest of five drug traders.

Later, based on information obtained from the detainees, 60,000 more yaba pills hidden in another microbus were recovered from Ward No. 5 of Kachuai Union.

RAB official Mozaffar Hossain said the seized yaba pills are worth around Tk1.8 lakh in the market. The detainees have been booked under the Narcotics Control Act and handed over to Patiya Police Station.