Drug ‘godfathers’ surrender to Bangladesh police
TEKNAF, Bangladesh: Some 102 Bangladeshi meth dealers have surrendered to authorities at a pre-scheduled ceremony in a coastal town, officials said on Saturday, as a Philippines-style anti-narcotics crackdown sows fear among kingpins.
Bangladesh last year launched a “war” on drugs following a proliferation of illegal substances in the South Asian nation of 165 million people, mostly of cheap methamphetamine pills known as “yaba”.
Police said 24 yaba “godfathers”, as well as lieutenants and peddlers, surrendered to the country’s home minister in Teknaf town — the key gateway for smuggling yaba into the country from Myanmar, where the pills are manufactured by the millions.
The dealers also surrendered 350,000 vanilla-scented, small red yaba pills — whose name comes from a Thai word meaning “crazy medicine” — and 30 illegal firearms.
The country’s police chief Mohammad Javed Patwary said authorities would advocate for lesser prison sentences for those who had surrendered, and would “assist” them in returning to normal life.
But he promised “harsh upcoming days” for those who had stayed away.
“Those who are in hiding, don’t get carried away. You’ll not be spared,” he told the mass gathering of several thousand locals who came to witness the event.
Teknaf is situated in Cox’s Bazar district — home to around a million Rohingya refugees — bordering Myanmar.
The mass surrender comes during a concerted crackdown against drug traffickers, which has left nearly 300 people dead, including 40 from Teknaf, and seen about 25,000 arrested since May last year.