Listen "Bangladesh versus Yaba"
Episode Synopsis
Thousands of Bangladeshi addicts are hooked on Yaba - a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine. It's a powerful drug that gives big bangs for small bucks. The Yaba epidemic has ripped through the population of Bangladesh, urban and rural, poor, middle-class and rich. This is a drug that's manufactured in industrial quantities in the jungles of neighbouring Myanmar. As the economy of Bangladesh has boomed, drug lords have worked to create new markets for their product. And the Rohingya crisis - when nearly a million fled Myanmar for Bangladesh - has created further opportunities for the traffickers, as desperate refugees have been employed as drug mules. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, declared a 'war on drugs' last May. Thousands have been arrested. But critics see a disturbing trend - hundreds of suspected Yaba dealers have been killed by law enforcement.Presenter / producer: Linda Pressly with Morshed Ali Khan
More episodes of the podcast Crossing Continents
‘A new foe’: Conscripting women in Denmark
23/09/2025
Kenya: A Battle for Gen Z
16/09/2025
Saving Gaza's Past
08/09/2025
Galicia’s wild horses in peril
02/09/2025
Tajikistan’s Last, Lonely Hyenas
12/08/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.