5 held with over 2 lakh yaba tablets

Five people have been arrested with yaba tablets in separate incidents in Chattogram and Cox's Bazar.

Officials of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) arrested two people with 140,000 yaba tablets in the city's EPZ area yesterday evening.

The arrestees were identified as Md Jabed, 20, hailing from Faridpur and Monjurul Islam, 40, from Cox's Bazar, said Hamidul Alam, Deputy Commissioner of CMP (Port).

The duo was in a private car sporting a fake sticker of the Local Government Engineering Department and were stopped at EPZ gate-2 Mailer Matha area under at around 6:30pm, said the DC, adding that they found the contrabands hidden inside the cover of the passenger seat of the vehicle.

Osman Gani, Inspector (Investigation) of the station said that the arrested were carrying the drugs from Cox's Bazar to Dhaka, adding that they suspected the two would smuggle the drugs through the airport.

A case was being lodged as of filing of this report.

Meanwhile, Rab arrested three people, including a Rohingya youth, with one lakh yaba tablets from Cox's Bazar's BSCIC area early yesterday.

The arrestees are Jubaer Prokash Johar, 35, Md Belal, 22, and Md Sadrul Amin, a 21-year-old Rohingya from Myanmar's Maungdaw.

Acting on a tip-off that a big consignment of yaba tablets would be brought to Cox's Bazar from Teknaf, a team of Rapid Action Battalion set up a temporary check point on a road in front of Cox's Bazar Polytechnic Institute, said Maj Mehedi Hasan, company commander of Rab-7.

Around 1:30am, the Rab team signaled a microbus to stop, searched it and found one lakh yaba tablets stashed in the gearbox of the vehicle.

The law enforcers then arrested its three passengers and seized the vehicle, Mehedi told The Daily Star.

Later, they were handed over to Cox's Bazar Model Police Station. The Rab filed a case against the three with the police station.

Police said a local court sent the arrestees to jail after they were produced before it.

Our correspondents from Chattogram and Cox's Bazar contributed to this report.