DHAKA – Nazreen Khan Mukta, who plays first-grade cricket in the DhakaPremier League, was returning from a match in the southeastern city ofCox’s Bazar when police stopped and searched the team bus at Chittagong.

“During our search, we caught her with 14,000 yaba pills she had kept inpackets,” local police chief Pronob Chowdhury told AFP, using the localname for tablets of methamphetamine mixed with caffeine.

Chowdhury said the Ansar VDP star would be charged with drug trafficking,an offence that can carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Cox’s Bazar borders Myanmar’s conflict-plagued Rakhine state, whereauthorities say methamphetamine labs produce tens of millions of yaba pillsthat are shipped to Bangladesh.

Officials this month said drug traffickers had been more active sinceAugust, when nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmarbegan pouring into Bangladesh.

Gangs have been using the Rohingya refugees as mules and hiding drugs infishing boats used for ferrying the persecuted Muslims to safety.

Authorities said last month that nine million yaba pills were seized inless than three months as the refugee influx reached its peak. Nearly twomillion were discovered in a single haul.

Dhaka has been planning to introduce the death penalty for yaba traffickingto try to curb the drug’s popularity and use.

Bangladesh in 2017 seized more than 40 million pills, double the previousyear’s haul. – APP /AFP