Kush lab in a Wari home was run remotely from the United States, expatriate youth arrested

The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has arrested a 22-year-old youth, Tousif Hasan, on allegations of growing the uncommon synthetic drug 'kush' in a specialised laboratory set up inside a home in Wari, in the capital. The agency said that even while staying in the United States, he ran the drug laboratory in Bangladesh through remote-control technology.

He was arrested in a raid on a house on Rankin Street under Wari police station between 8:30 and 9:00 on Sunday morning, 1 November. The DNC said Tousif is a U.S. citizen who had been absconding for a long time before recently returning to the country, and that efforts to locate and arrest him had been under way for a long time.

A DNC source said investigators found Tousif's house while probing an attempt last January to smuggle yaba to the United States through an international courier service. A later raid on the house uncovered a laboratory specially built for growing kush.

Kush seeds brought from California in the United States, cultivated plants, freshly harvested kush and various growing equipment were recovered from the laboratory. Shisha-smoking equipment and foreign liquor were also found.

Evidence of kush being grown in several pots was also found in a special temperature-controlled room built with tin and foil paper on the roof of the house.

People involved in the investigation said Tousif learned kush-growing techniques while living in California. He later returned home, set up the specialised laboratory in his own house and began growing it, controlling the laboratory's temperature and monitoring its activity through technology even while abroad. The investigation found that a girlfriend of his assisted him in the work.

Last January, an attempt was made through that girlfriend, using a false identity, to send 32 yaba tablets to the United States by international courier. The DNC recovered the tablets in a raid. The girlfriend and the caretaker of Tousif's house were arrested in that incident and a case was filed at Tongi West police station, in which Tousif was named as an absconding accused.

After his arrest, Tousif's dope test found the presence of methamphetamine and cannabinoids. Ten methamphetamine-laced yaba tablets, 100 grams of cannabis and various drug-taking equipment were recovered from him at the time.

The DNC said that in preliminary questioning Tousif gave information about his involvement in supplying yaba and kush to various drug dealers in Dhaka. The sources of his drug collection and supply, and other matters of his involvement, are being examined.