Drug peddlers active at 374 city points
More than 400 drug peddlers are running the illegal business at about 374 spots across Dhaka city, according to intelligence sources.
A number of godfathers, including two incumbent ward commissioners of Dhaka City Corporation and one listed absconding "top terror", control the whole chain of drug trade.
Drug addicts, mostly youngsters including both male and female gather at different drug sale points from afternoon till mid-night.
Despite law enforcers' routine and special raids, the drug trade situation virtually keeps unchanged as most of the arrested drug dealers resume their businesses after securing bails from courts.
According to court sources, the arrested drug paddlers came out of jail due to loopholes in police reports produced in connection with the cases.
Department of Narcotics Control sources said the drugs seized amounts to only 10 percent of the total drugs being smuggled into the country.
Some one-lakh people are engaged in this illegal drug trade and 30 percent of those arrested on charges of drug peddling are women and children, added the sources.
Intelligence sources said most of the drugs, being sold in the drug dens, include heroin, cannabis, and phensidyl since addicts prefer those while Yaba is a "fashion drug".
Intelligence sources said the highest number of illegal drug spots have been identified in Jatrabari, Demra, Shyampur and Kadamtoli where 93 drug dens have been spotted.
Another 72 drug dens have been found in Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh, and New Market while 49 others are being run in Pallabi.
Sources said seven points have been spotted in Ramna, 14 in Motijheel and Paltan, 12 in Lalbagh and Kamrangichar, 10 in Kotwali, seven in Sutrapur, 11 in Sabujbagh and Khilgaon, 20 in Gulshan, Badda, Khilkhet and Cantonment, six in Mohammadpur and Adabar, 10 in Mirpur, Shah Ali and Darus Salam, 22 in Uttara, Torag, Uttar Khan and Dakhin Khan, 15 in Biman Bandar and 20 drug points in Shahbagh.
One of most wanted "top terror" Trimoti Suvrata Bain, who is believed to be hiding in India, controls the drug den in Ramna.
Over 17 drug peddlers have been identified in Tejgaon who run the illegal trade at Kawran Bazar Road, Rail Line slums and others areas. Most of the drugs, especially phensidyle and cannabis, are being ferried there by trains.
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