Mohammad Jamil Khan

The surrender of 102 drug lords on February 16 now seems merely an eyewash as the yaba empire in Teknaf remains mostly intact with some of their family members and paid agents taking care of the illegal trade.

From political leaders to businessmen, fish traders to poultry farm owners and brickfield workers to tailors -- the professions of 102 yaba godfathers and dealers who surrendered to police on February 16 are as varied as their age.

A new strategy of yaba smuggling, involving fresh routes and hundi traders, has been at work since the surrender of 102 godfathers and dealers in Cox's Bazar in February.

The type of light guns put on display during the recent surrender of 102 narcos in Teknaf is easily available in Moheshkhali island, where illegal makeshift factories manufacture such firearms.

He told police that he was just a petty thief two years ago.

Despite the surrender of 102 top narcos in Teknaf, yaba smuggling continues under the supervision of some listed godfathers and hundi traders who recently launched credit sales of the pink pills.

With one police jeep in front and another behind, four buses brought 102 yaba godfathers and dealers to Teknaf Model Primary School from Cox's Bazar Police Lines around 9:00am yesterday.

For the first time in the country, around 100 yaba godfathers and dealers will surrender today at a formal programme in Teknaf, the entry point for the deadly drug from Myanmar.

A syndicate of around 500 paid agents and carriers, who once oversaw yaba smuggling on behalf of their godfathers and dealers, has now taken control of the trade in Teknaf and Ukhia, the entry points of the drug to Bangladesh.

Yaba smugglers are now using air routes to carry the crazy pills to the capital from Teknaf, the gateway for the drugs to Bangladesh.

The other side of Abdur Rahman Bodi, widely known as a yaba godfather, is quite intriguing. The former Awami League lawmaker has been spending roughly Tk 19 crore per annum for the last three years on distributing rice among 56,000 poor people in Teknaf every month.

IGP Mohammad Javed Patwary yesterday ordered the police officials to re-intensify the countrywide anti-narcotics drive.

Police high-ups yesterday placed before the home minister a host of demands that include land allocation for the force and appointment of police officials to the key posts, including that of the director general, at the passport department.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday gave her nod to all the demands placed before her on the opening day of the Police Week yesterday.

Yaba traders are adopting new techniques every day to bring the pills to the capital. They are now using mostly homeless children, aged between 10 and 15 years, as drug mules. They pay the children to take the risks.

One would be mesmerised by the duplex mansions by the 13km road between Teknaf Zero Point and Shah Porir Island. Most of the mansions are in the middle of farmland, forest or just beside the road.

With law enforcers locking up listed drug dealers and smugglers, new groups are filling their shoes adopting generous marketing strategies, including sales on credit. They are also using new routes to smuggle in yaba from Myanmar.

Nahiyan often springs up from bed at midnight and starts looking for her father Akramul Haque, the slain ward councillor of Teknaf municipality. The 12-year-old scurries to her father's bed and breaks down.

Take a trip down the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway, and you cannot miss the eye-catching duplex building by the main road near Leda station.

A two-storey training centre inside the secure compound of Cox's Bazar Police Lines is now the “safe home” for 63 alleged yaba godfathers and dealers in the district. At least 24 of them are on the government list of 73 top drug dealers in the country, said a top police official in Cox's Bazar.