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The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has uncovered what it says is Bangladesh’s first identified yaba manufacturing factory, operating in Keraniganj on the outskirts of Dhaka, and arrested four alleged drug producers and traffickers.
The revelation came during a press briefing at the RAB Media Centre in the capital’s Karwan Bazar on Friday, where RAB-10 Commanding Officer Additional DIG Mohammad Asaduzzaman said the synthetic drug was being produced locally using raw materials sourced from within Dhaka.
Responding to a question on whether the ingredients were brought from Myanmar, Asaduzzaman said investigators had found that the raw materials required for yaba production were readily available in Dhaka.
“This is the first time we have discovered a yaba manufacturing factory inside the country. The tablets produced in Keraniganj were supplied to different parts of Dhaka,” he said.
According to RAB, a raid was conducted around 10:10 pm on Thursday in the Madhyachar South Balurchar area under Keraniganj Model Police Station. Four suspected members of a drug manufacturing and trafficking network were arrested during the operation.
The elite force seized yaba tablets worth approximately Tk 590,400, along with powdered raw materials used in manufacturing the drug, production equipment, five mobile phones and a digital weighing scale.
The arrested suspects were identified as Md Alamgir alias Ande, 40, Ali Arman, 36, Shahjahan, 40, and Sonia, 30.
RAB said Alamgir is already an accused in three narcotics cases filed with Rampura, Kamrangirchar and Mohammadpur police stations.
The suspects are believed to be professional drug traffickers who had been producing yaba tablets for an extended period after collecting the necessary ingredients themselves before distributing the drugs across Dhaka and other parts of the country.
Asaduzzaman said the detainees told investigators they had been manufacturing yaba in Keraniganj for nearly two years.
He added that law enforcement agencies suspect similar clandestine yaba factories may be operating in other parts of Bangladesh and that investigations are underway to identify and dismantle them.
The seized drugs, manufacturing materials and equipment, along with the suspects, have been handed over to the local police station for legal action under the Narcotics Control Act.