3 arrested with Yaba tablets from Jalpaiguri

Darjeeling: Three persons were arrested along with Yaba tablets worth more than Rs 1 and a half crore from Jalpaiguri. A vehicle has been seized but the driver has managed to flee.

Based on a tip-off, a team from the Jalpaiguri Kotwali police station conducted raids on National Highway 31

in the Balapara area adjacent to Paharpur in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday.

While checking a particular vehicle, the police recovered 20 packets of Yaba tablets and arrested three persons.

The arrested include Muhammad Shamim from Vaishali, Bihar; Rukumat Bin from the Golaghat area of Assam and Rashid Ali from Jorhaat, Assam.

Around 2 lakh tablets were recovered from the trio. The value of these tablets in the grey market is around Rs 1 crore 60 lakh.

"We arrested them from an area adjacent to the Teesta bridge on Tuesday afternoon. A case has been started. We are investigating the source and destination along with the other persons involved," stated Bishwashreya Sarkar, IC, Jalpaiguri Kotwali.

Incidentally "Yaba" means "Crazy pills" in Thai language. The Yaba pills had a thriving market in Bangladesh with a large number of youths falling prey to this narcotic.

Earlier, the popular methamphetamine-based drug used to be smuggled from Thailand, via Myanmar and the North-East states of India to Bangladesh.

"The tablets were coming from Assam and were being taken to Kolkata. Three persons have been arrested. The driver has however, managed to flee," stated Debabrata Sarkar, Executive Magistrate, Jalpaiguri.