Smugglers are using goods transport agencies to send Yaba tablets from Chittagong to Dhaka, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) said yesterday, after seizing 90,000 pills the night before.

The consignments of the illegal drug were found in cartons of electric bulbs and cost around Tk 3.6 crore, Rab-7 officials told a press briefing at its headquarters in the port city.

On information, Rab teams raided New Al Amin Transport Agency and New Shimul Transport Agency, both on DT Road, Wednesday evening and recovered 20,000 and 70,000 tablets respectively. They also arrested two men -- Ahammed Noor, 48, of Patiya, and Md Rasel, 29, of Baklia -- who had dropped the cartons there.

Quoting the duo, Commanding Officer of Rab-7 Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed said, "In the last two months, eight consignments were sent from one fake address -- Jashim Electronic House, 74 Asadganj, Kotwali. We presume that each consignment contained 70,000 to 90,000 Yaba tablets." The addresses of the two receivers were also fake, he added. The packages were sent to Ramesh Sarkar Electronics on Elephant Road, Dhaka and Sagar Lighting House in Nawabpur, Dhaka, none of which exists.

The Rab officer said that along with their smuggling partner, Md Selim, a union chairman of Patyia upazila, they used to collect Yaba from one Md Jahangir, 35 of Anwara upazila, who owns and rents out trawlers and brings the drug from Teknaf. Jahangir receives supplies from two others, Aylen Hossain, 48, and Md Belal Hossain, 35, who allegedly smuggle in the drug from Myanmar, Col Miftah said. The two were arrested, he added.

Contacted over the phone, the transport agency authorities denied knowing that the cartons contained Yaba. Separately, Rab-7 also seized 6,000 bottles of Phensedyl, worth Tk 50 lakh, while checking a truck in Saltgola area of Chittagong city yesterday.