The Crux of Transnational Yaba- Trafficking Nexus in Bangladesh: Explaining the Reasons and Advocating Counter- Strategies
- February 17, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRSI, International Relations
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue II, February 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705
Iffat Anjum
Lecturer, Department of International Relations, Bangladesh Military Academy, Bangladesh University of Professionals, Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Abstract—The paper examines regional patterns of synthetic drug Yaba trafficking as a major challenge in the governance system of Bangladesh. The heightened security threat has been recognized as one of the significant Transnational Organized Crimes (TOC) of Bangladesh since last few decades. Depending primarily on secondary literatures and expert interviews, this paper highlights such trafficking as an emerging source of regional instability and security threat. Bangladesh being both transit and destination country of South Asian and Southeast Asian Yaba trafficking network has been examined as a regional test case. A significant linkage of accessible Bangladesh- Myanmar Yaba trafficking routes with adjacent drug cartels of Golden Crescent, Golden Triangle and beyond has been traditionally highlighted as the prime reasons behind such instability. But the paper has argued about several alternative facilitators crucially indicating towards erroneous governance system revealing; capacity gap, networked syndicate, incompatible regional initiatives and involvement of authoritative officials to inflame the geo- strategic convenience. The paper further investigates overtime domestic as well as international law enforcement entities’ failure to combat the accelerating challenge. Thereby, in countering the regionally interlinked crisis, this paper prescribes for a plausible regional law enforcement regime along with regional co-operation and domestic efficiency to escape an ‘Yaba War’ and to provide imperatives for future research.
Keywords— Transnational Organized Crime, Yaba Trafficking, Erroneous Governance System, Networked Syndicate and Regional Law Enforcement Regime.
I. INTRODUCTION
According to Annual Drug Reports published by Department of Narcotic Control, Ministry of Home Affairs of Bangladesh, it has been astonishingly unveiled that the use of ‘Yaba’ (mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine locally known as Yaba) has skyrocketed in the country by 1450 folds (144934%) over the past ten years. The report has provided data on the basis of ‘seized yaba’ or recovery drugs from 2008-2018 (Department of Narcotic Control, 2018) while it is pretty much persuasive that recorded drugs actually indicate way to less than the actual and untraced usages of illicit substances within an entity.
