DHAKA: Bangladesh seized a record 53 million metham-phetamine pills in 2018 – up 33 per cent in a year – amid a deadly nationwide crackdown on the trade, officials said.
Nearly 300 suspected drug dealers were killed last year, according to authorities, who insisted the seizure figure was proof that their campaign was working.
Rights groups said the record haul showed the deaths had failed to make an impact on the trade.
The government Department of Narcotics Control said the drug —popularly known as ‘yaba’, a Thai word meaning ‘crazy medicine’ —was seized across the South Asian nation of 165 million people.
“It is the highest amount seized in a year,” Bazlur Rahman, a department deputy director, said.
Masum-e-Rabbani, another senior official at the department, said the record haul was proof that a crackdown launched in May last year was yielding ‘positive’ results. He said there has been a significant decline in the use and sale of yaba.
Nearly 300 suspected drug dealers were killed by security forces in the campaign and some 25,000 arrests made, according to Rabbani. – AFP