A Rohingya refugee boy carries water in the Kutupalong refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
DHAKA, MARCH 27 (PTI): Bangladesh security forces have seized nearly nine million methamphetamine pills in less than three months as a massive influx of Rohingya refugees brings increased smuggling from Myanmar, officials said today.
Increased raids on fishing boats on the Naf river, which divides the neighbours, have reaped the massive haul of 'yaba' pills which are snapped up by Bangladesh youth.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) troops in the border town of Teknaf have seized some 5.16 million of the caffeine-laced meth pills and coast guards have confiscated 3.47 million pills since January 1, officials said.
"In one raid on March 15, we seized 1.8 million yaba pills abandoned in four sacks in the Naf river," border guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Asadud Zaman Chowdhury told AFP.
"It is the biggest ever yaba seizure by the BGB," he said.
The guards arrested 11 smugglers in March, including seven Rohingya. The pills have become an easy source of income for the Rohingya who have poured across the border since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown in their home Rakhine state in August last year.
The refugees act as 'yaba' carriers, handing over the pills to dealers on the Bangladesh side of the border who then take them to the country's main cities, according to police.
