Since 1 January 2023 till the second week of September, 18methamphetamine dealers along with1263637 banned pills (including 300ICEsand prohibited powder) were caught and seized across Rakhine State.

Rakhine military council source reveals that Maungdaw locality emerges as the hot bed of illegal drugsactivities. Other affected townships includeSittwe, Buthidaung and Toungup.

Among the arrested individuals there are four women namely Ma Win Shwe (28 years old), Ma Moe Moe (25) fromTharikonpaw village under Maungdawtownship, Ma Fatema from  Thet Kay Byint area of Sittwe township, with another lady.

The arrested persons were caught red handed while they were delivering the pills to the middlemen.

Among the seized methamphetamine pills, 477,750 were found at Noor Bo Chou’s residence in Gyung Chuangvillage under Maungdaw township on 11 February.

On the other hand, 273,000 pills were seized from  the mouth of a creek near to Ngan Chuang villagesoccer field.

According to the military authority, total value of the seized pills will be Kyats 1.5 billion.

There is no production unit of  Yaba pills in Rakhine State, but the peddlers  are using the State as aroute to send those items to Bangladesh.

On 5 April 2022, nearly 15 million methamphetamine pills were seized from a vehicle coming  from Yangonto Mrauk U locality at Pa Padong checkpointin Ann township of Rakhine State. The seizing of pills was a big catch for the anti-narcoticsforces in two years under the militaryrule.