Yaba factory busted in city

Police yesterday claimed to have unveiled a secret yaba factory and seized raw materials sufficient to produce nearly four lakh pieces of the contraband drug from Demra area in the capital.

Police raided the factory on Monday afternoon at Amtola in Sarulia area of Demra and arrested the owner of the factory with a production capacity of 500 tablets a day, said Mohammad Farid Uddin, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Wari division), at a press briefing at DMP media centre.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

During the raid, police seized 1,110 pieces of yaba tablets, around 29 kilograms of powdery substances in pink, yellow and red colours and various other ingredients stockpiled for using in the manufacturing of the drug.

"Around four lakh pieces of yaba tablets could be made with the confiscated raw materials," the DC added.

The arrested man, Nasir Ahmed, 55, relinquished his profession as a herbal medicine maker a year ago and launched his yaba production venture by procuring materials and equipment from local sources, he said, adding that Nasir had been producing 500 pieces of the contraband item per day in his house-turned-yaba factory. 

The DMP came to know about the yaba racket in Demra after they recently arrested two yaba peddlers associated with the factory and information gleaned from the two helped the police unearth the secret factory, said Farid at the briefing.

A total of eight individuals were members of the racket involved in the production and selling of yaba manufactured in the Demra factory and the police were on the lookout for one of their key members, Abdullah, who has expertise in making yaba, the DC said.

Yaba manufactured in the Demra factory were usually sold in Wari and other parts of Dhaka, he added.

Although the high-demand illicit drug is usually smuggled into the country from Myanmar through the Teknaf border, drug traders made several attempts to set up yaba factories in the capital.

In November 23 this year, detectives busted a yaba manufacturing ring and arrested five of its members who tried to set up a yaba factory at Section 2 of Mirpur in the capital.

In August 2014, detectives arrested four alleged yaba traders who tried to establish a factory in the capital's Banasree area.

In October 2007, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Amin Huda, considered as one of the top drug kingpins in Bangladesh, and sealed off his factory at Gulshan in Dhaka.