Man held with 2,080 yaba pills in stomach

With 2,080 pieces of yaba stashed in his stomach, Golam Mostafa Mandal landed at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Cox's Bazar yesterday.

He attempted to sneak out through the VIP terminal around 1pm, but Armed Police Battalion (APBn) challenged him, suspecting his movement.

Mostafa initially denied having any contraband items with him but an X-ray confirmed the yaba in his stomach.

The officials later recovered the pills that he put in small packets and swallowed in a hotel in Cox's Bazar before boarding the flight, said Alamgir Hossain, additional superintendent (ops and media) of Airport APBn.

Apart from Mostafa, the APBn official arrested his accomplice Mohammad Ali, who arrived at the airport with an auto-rickshaw to receive him.

Alamgir said a drug dealer named Selim gave the pills to Mostafa, while another named Rahman was supposed to receive the drugs. He used to get Tk 5,000 for carrying of each consignment from Cox's Bazar to Dhaka.

The street value of the pills is Tk 10 lakh, APBn said.