Airports Emerge as Safe Routes for Yaba, Ice, and Other Drug Smuggling!

Staff Reporter

Beyond roads and waterways, airports have now been identified as secure routes for drug trafficking.

Today, during an anti-narcotics operation at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s domestic terminal, a team from the Department of Narcotics Control (Dhaka-North) seized 4,000 yaba pills from a passenger arriving from Cox’s Bazar.

In the sudden raid, one person was arrested for drug trafficking, while another fled.

From the arrested individual, authorities recovered 4,000 yaba pills, two mobile phones, and 3,000 BDT in cash as evidence.

A case has been filed at the airport police station against the arrested individual and 3-4 unidentified others.

The alarming fact is that the suspect managed to exit the airport with the drug consignment without any prior checks. The narcotics team stopped him for inspection near a Dutch-Bangla Bank ATM booth outside the airport gate, where the yaba shipment was discovered.

Typically, yaba is smuggled into Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar via Chittagong using buses, trucks, and other land routes. While there have been isolated incidents of yaba smuggling via air passengers before, intelligence suggests traffickers are increasingly opting for air routes, considering them safer.

Authorities suspect that since August, large quantities of narcotics have entered the capital through this route amid law enforcement limitations. However, it’s not just yaba—intelligence indicates that high-value and dangerous drugs, including ice, are also being transported via air.