Rs 1 cr-worth Yaba tablets seized from truck in Agartala, police suspect Myanmar-Bangladesh link

In a major drug bust, Tripura Police seized 1.24 lakh methamphetamine tablets (also known as Yaba tablets) valued at around Rs one crore and arrested two persons in the capital city of Agartala on Sunday. 

The drugs smuggled from Myanmar were intended to be smuggled to Bangladesh, the officials added.

A police officer said that the 1.24 lakh methamphetamine tablets were seized from a cement-laden truck.

Police arrested the truck driver Jamal Hussain (43) and his assistant Mintu Baman (33). The police intercepted the truck, which was coming from Meghalaya and going to bordering Sonamura in Sepahijala district.

Police officials suspect that the drugs were intended to be smuggled to Bangladesh and had been brought from Myanmar.

A case has been registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985. Immediately after the arrest of the truck driver and his assistant, police officials started interrogating the duo to ascertain the details of the drug smuggling effort.

The drugs were seized, two days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths conducted coordinated search operations across multiple locations in Tripura on Friday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, targeting inter-state drug cartels involved in the trafficking of narcotic substances, including ganja and phensidyl.

A Tripura government official had said that during Friday’s search operation in three Tripura districts -- West Tripura, South Tripura and Sepahijala, the ED sleuths identified seven persons, including Dhruba Majumdar, an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Tripura Police, in the drug peddling racket.

Majumdar is presently posted at the Crime Branch section under the office of the Superintendent of Police, South Tripura district and a resident at Baikhora.

The source said the Tripura Police was contemplating suitable legal and administrative action against Majumdar.

The ED sleuths as part of their investigation also summoned some Tripura Gramin Bank officials and questioned them early on Friday.

Though Tripura has become the most important producer of ganja and a corridor for synthetic drugs, including highly addictive methamphetamine tablets, this is the first time in Tripura that such major raids were conducted by the Central agency against the key drug players.