Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has seized 250,000 tablets of contraband methamphetamine-based yaba from a salt farm in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf Upazila.
BGB said that they seized the drugs, with an estimated street-value of over Tk 70 million from a salt farm of Zafar Project in Teknaf on Tuesday (Feb 5).
They have been unable to arrest anyone in the matter.
“We received a tip-off about a yaba consignment from Myanmar,” said Teknaf-2 BGB chief Md Asaduzzaman Chowdhury.
He added that a BGB patrol team that took position near the field saw a group of men carrying something on their head.
“They made a run for it when BGB men chased them, leaving their goods,” Chowdhury said.
He said that the drugs have been stored and will be destroyed in the presence of concerned authorities and the media.
Yaba tablets are a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine and a popular substitute for the party drug Ecstasy.
It made its way into Bangladesh's party scene in early 2000.
A series of sensational raids in 2007 and media coverage on the issue brought the drugs into limelight that year, leading to calls for stopping their use.
Methamphetamine, the key component of Yaba, is highly addictive and causes withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, insomnia, confusion, tremors, convulsions, anxiety, paranoia, and aggressiveness.
Yaba is usually smuggled into Bangladesh through 45 routes of Cox’s Bazar district, bordering Myanmar's Rakhine State, according to intelligence agencies.
Myanmar is infamous for producing yaba, opium and cannabis in vast quantities.
Drug trafficking has emerged as a problem in Rakhine State and illicit drug trade has flourished because of its mountainous land and porous borders.