Bangladesh
Smuggling Large shipment of yaba in the sea, 3 Myanmar nationals arrested
Dhaka, December 8: Bangladesh Coast Guard members have arrested three Myanmar nationals for smuggling 4 lakh yaba and 9 lakh Myanmar Kyat into Bangladesh by sea with yaba from Myanmar. They were arrested in a raid on Monday (December 6) morning.
A fishing trawler was seized during an operation in the Bay of Bengal near Chera Island in St. Martin, Teknaf.
The arrested are A Thong Sa, 67, son of Mong Sadur, a resident of On Dyeing area of Akiab, Myanmar, Mong Cho Aung, 51, son of Sang Twang Sar of the same village and Mohammad Isahaq, 48, son of Mohammad Idris of Pelisong area.
Amirul Haque, Lieutenant Commander of Bangladesh Coast Guard Teknaf Station confirmed the information. He said the Coast Guard had information for two days that a large consignment of yaba would be smuggled from Myanmar to Bangladesh by sea near the island of St. Martin. According to him, Coast Guard Teknaf Station Commander Amirul Haque and St. Martin Coast Guard Station Lieutenant Commander Redwan ul Islam jointly conducted special surveillance and operations.
On Sunday (December 6th), a wooden trawler was seen coming from the Myanmar border into Bangladesh waters south of St. Martin's Chera Island without any signal light. When their movements became suspicious, Coastguard members signaled the boat to stop and chased.
At one stage of the chase, the Coast Guard members seized the trawler along with three sailors around 3:30 pm. After searching the boat, they recovered 9 lakh 51 thousand kyat (Myanmar currency) and 4 lakh 50 thousand pieces of yaba from three plastic bag packets.
Preliminary interrogation revealed that they were all permanent Myanmar nationals and had been smuggling yaba by sea for a long time.
Amirul Haque, lieutenant commander of Bangladesh Coast Guard Teknaf station, said the three arrested have been handed over to Teknaf police station after filing a case under the relevant Narcotics and Foreign Nationals Act.
