Are drug kingpins being protected?

It is alarming to see law enforcers going only after petty drug carriers while the masterminds of narcotics trade and smuggling remain out of reach. According to a report by this daily, a total of 2,293 narcotics cases were filed by police in Barishal between July 22, 2022 and September 23, 2023, with charge sheets submitted in 1,829 of them. However, those who were implicated all happened to be drug carriers. The same thing happened with the cases filed by the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) from August 5, 2021 to February 28, 2023 in the same division. Its investigations too were unsuccessful in tracing the kingpins.

The question is, why are the relevant departments leaving out the masterminds? The explanation given by them is quite incredulous. Apparently, they questioned arrested drug carriers but the latter did not disclose names of the kingpins or those giving them drugs. For instance, in January, the DNC arrested a narcotic trader named Rafiqul Islam with 10,000 yaba pills and later submitted a charge sheet against him. However, the investigation failed to produce the identity of his supplier. Are we to believe that our law enforcers cannot extract such basic information from small-time criminals or by using other means available to them? Or are they protecting the identity of drug lords? At a time when so much money is being syphoned off the country by drug smugglers—with Bangladesh ranked fifth in the world and first in Asia in terms of money laundering from illegal drug trade—how can our law enforcers justify their failure?

Over the years, many drug carriers have been arrested across the country, but the illegal trade has not stopped. The 2018 nationwide anti-narcotics drive failed to yield any substantive results either. Clearly, there is something fundamentally flawed with how law enforcers are approaching the issue. We urge the authorities to undertake a critical review of this situation and ensure that law enforcers are better trained and insulated from corrupt influences. They must deliver results in the drive against illegal drugs.