Myanmar to address Bangladesh ya ba trafficking issue

08 May 2015
Myanmar to address Bangladesh ya ba trafficking issue
Seized drugs, heroin (white, below) and methamphetamines, called locally Ya-Ba (the pink pills, above), part of the 2005 yield at Mae Sai border crossing in northern Thailand, in the Golden Triangle. Photo: Barbara Walton/EPA

A delegation from the Central Committee for Drug Abuse and Control (CCDC) of Myanmar as assured Bangladeshi’s Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) that they would identify yaba (tablets of methamphetamine and caffeine) smugglers operating from Myanmar into Bangladesh. It is estimated that that about 50 lakh of Yaba tablets were trafficked and consumed in the country every day. The the two anti-narcotics agencies agreed to exchange intelligence and meet regularly to discuss strategies and exchange operational and technical information to fight drug trafficking.
In 2006, ya ba consumption became fashionable for the affluent members of society in Bangladesh and a series of highly publicized drug raids in 2007 by authorities implicated some well-known business people. In June 2014, A Bangladesh Border Guard delegation handed over a list of 38 factories producing Amphetamine Type Stimulants to its Myanmar counterparts. The border guards also collected names of at least eight drug lords based in the Mangdu area of Myanmar, which shares an aproximately 271 kilometre border with Bangladesh. So far little progress as been made in addressing Bangladesh’s concerns.
A decade ago, few in Bangladesh had heard of yaba, nowadays the drug is easily available throughout the country. One tablet costs roughly 6300 kyat.