NEW CHINA-MYANMAR DRUG ON A HIGH IN INDIA, AGENCIES WORRIED

NEW DELHI: Security agencies have become alert to increased drug smuggling along the country’s eastern border with Bangladesh. Significantly, there has been a big jump in the smuggling of a new type of drug named “Ya Ba”.

The drug is making rapid inroads among the country’s youth. Popularly known as “Crazy Medicine”, it is almost twice as potent as the prevalent Phensedyl cough syrup. According to an intelligence agency report, an alert has been issued to the security agencies to change their strategy to overcome this new drug.

According to the prepared dossier of the IB, India is currently playing the role of a “transit country” for the round-shaped red coloured “Ya Ba” drug. The massive increase in its trafficking is a clear indication that “Ya Ba” will not take long to make inroads among drug addicts in the country. The dossier also states that most Indian smugglers, who are still trafficking illegal cough syrup, have shifted themselves to smuggling “Ya Ba” due to high demand and high earning.

An intelligence agency official told The Daily Guardian, “Ya Ba’s cross-border smuggling has raised concerns among the security, intelligence and anti-narcotics community about its increased use among our youth in the last two years as this new drug is being found in more quantity than Phensedyl.”

According to a BSF spokesperson, the growing concern has been over the finding of this drug in states that have not been involved in smuggling. For this reason, BSF patrol teams have been put on alert over the 4,096-km-long border with Bangladesh. Apart from this, the smugglers are also adopting the method of sending the drug from Myanmar to Mizoram and sending it to Tripura’s capital Agartala via Aizawl and Bangladesh. Smugglers active on both sides of the border in Tripura have also combined their drug trade due to greater financial gain by quitting the smuggling of charas.

About 7.22 lakh “Ya Ba” tablets were caught in 2019, in comparison only 3.08 lakh bottles of Phensedyl were recovered last year. By November2020, 6.65 lakh “Ya Ba” tablets were seized, while 5 lakh Phensedyl bottles were captured till the same period.

The illegal labs that make “Ya Ba” are operating in Myanmar, but the raw material comes from China. It is then smuggled to the 270-km-long border from Myanmar and Bangladesh to India, where its demand is growing.

According to intelligence agencies, this drug causes tension, excitement, anger and irritability among the youth. It can lead to adverse effects which include extensive damage to kidneys, heart, liver and brain. Indian security agencies have issued an alert on this at the India-Bangladesh border, all agencies are working in a coordinated manner as the challenge is big and to catch consignments of the drug, take concrete action against the people engaged in its trade would take a massive effort.