Huge Yaba haul in Ctg port

Rapid Action Battalion seized 10 lakh yaba tablets worth Tk 40 crore while those were being smuggled to the country by a trawler through the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port on Tuesday night.

It is the second largest Yaba haul seized in the country, said Assistant Superintendent of Police of Rab-7, adding that navy personnel seized 15 lakh Yaba pills in Chittagong on February 5 last year, which was the biggest ever.

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The consignment of 10 lakh tablets was coming from Myanmar, said officials of Rab-7 at a press conference at its headquarters in the city's Patenga yesterday.

Eight persons, including a Myanmarese, were arrested in this connection, said Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed, commanding officer of Rab-7.

Abdus Salam, 55, Shafique, 35, Abdur Rahim, 30, of Cox's Bazar; and Kamal, 32, the Myanmar citizen were held in the trawler "FV Emon".

On their information, the Yaba owner Joynal Abedin, 25, his associate and the trawler owner Md Syed Alam, 30, and Md Rabiul Alam, 26, were arrested in Cox's Bazar, said the Rab official. Another Mamun, 27, was held in Chittagong city's Bahaddarhat, he added.

The contraband drugs were found in six sacks, Rab sources said.

In primary interrogation, the arrestees confessed that they smuggled 14.5 lakh Yaba pills to the country in the last 10 days of December last year, said Miftah.