Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has arrested three people and seized 220,000 yaba pills, a foreign-made pistol and ammunition in Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya after uncovering an unusual underwater drug-smuggling method along the Naf River.
The smugglers allegedly used a specially built wooden submersible carrier, an electric motor, steel cables and pulleys to transport yaba from Myanmar through the Naf River and into Bangladesh via a canal.
Lieutenant Colonel Zahirul Islam, commander of the BGB's 64 Battalion, disclosed the details at a press conference at the battalion's media hall today (13 October).
The detainees are Md Roki Ahmed, 26, son of Farid from Rahmater Bil in Balukhali; Belal Uddin, 35, son of Nur Alam from Nalbonia in Balukhali; and Khorshed Alam, 26, son of Khorshed Alam from Madhyam Farir Bil in Balukhali. All three are residents of Ukhiya.
According to Zahirul Islam, a patrol team from the Palongkhali Border Outpost conducted an operation near Anjumanpara in Ukhiya around 9:30pm on 12 October.
The team spotted four to five suspicious people beside a raised hut at Monir's fish enclosure. When BGB members approached, several people tried to flee. The patrol chased and arrested two suspects.
Acting on information provided by the detainees, the team searched the area and the hut, recovering a firearm, ammunition and equipment used in the smuggling operation. A third suspect was also detained, the BGB commander said.
The seized items included two magazines, 11 rounds of ammunition, a mobile phone, nine pulleys, a specialised submersible carrier, nearly two kilometres of steel cable, a high-capacity battery and an electric motor.
Zahirul Islam said the equipment was used to pull the wooden carrier underwater from Myanmar, across the Naf River and through the Faiysha canal in Palongkhali, reaching about one kilometre inside Bangladesh.
As the canal has several bends, smugglers reportedly divided the underwater route into straight sections using steel cables and pulleys. They moved smaller pulleys from one section to another as the carrier passed each bend, allowing it to travel further inland while remaining difficult to detect from the surface.
One member of the group allegedly pretended to catch fish by hand while moving alongside the submerged carrier.
After examining the equipment, the BGB estimated that a single carrier of this type could transport around 30 lakh yaba pills at a time.
Zahirul Islam said legal proceedings against the detainees were underway and they would be handed over to Ukhiya Police Station.
On 9 September, authorities seized 14 lakh yaba pills in Hnila, Teknaf, after smugglers allegedly tried to pull a drug consignment underwater using a rope attached to a boat.
The BGB said the latest operation had exposed a more advanced version of a similar smuggling technique.
According to the 64 BGB Battalion, its anti-drug operations resulted in the seizure of nearly 1.663 crore yaba pills between January and October this year. During the same period, 228 people were detained on suspicion of involvement in drug smuggling.