Netrokona border has 10-12 drug entry points across Durgapur and Kalmakanda; 511 cases and 695 arrests in a year

Drugs are crossing into the border district of Netrokona under cover of darkness. Carried sometimes on heads and sometimes by motorcycle, pickup van, auto-rickshaw or other vehicles, the consignments change hands several times before reaching their intended recipients, and from there spread by road to Netrokona town and to nearby areas including Mymensingh and Dhaka.

Such smuggling has long been alleged in the border areas of the district's Durgapur and Kalmakanda upazilas. Raids by police, the BGB and the Department of Narcotics Control regularly recover drugs and arrest carriers, yet the smuggling does not stop; within days of one consignment being seized, word arrives of a new one in the same area. The picture emerges from district police data, drug case records, BGB recovery information and conversations with local residents.

According to district police, 511 drug cases were filed in Netrokona between January and December 2025, with 695 people arrested. Recoveries in the same period included 29,874 yaba pills, 838 tapentadol pills, 21.98 grams of heroin, 220 kg of cannabis, 611 litres of local liquor, 631 injection ampoules, 1,608 bottles of Indian liquor, 1,100 bottles of wash, 26 bottles of phensedyl and 30 cannabis plants.

Analysis of the police data shows a notable number of drug cases in border-adjacent Kalmakanda and Durgapur. In 2025, Kalmakanda police recorded 42 cases with 73 arrests, and Durgapur police 40 cases with 58 arrests.

Roughly 92 kilometres of border in Durgapur and Kalmakanda are rugged and uninhabited in many stretches. Conversations with local people identified at least 10 to 12 points through which drugs and smuggled goods enter, including Bhabanipur, Barmari, Lakshmipur, Bharatpur and Menki Fanda in Durgapur Sadar union, plus Kullagora and Bijoypur, and Kalmakanda's Nazirpur, Rangchati, Lengura, Kharnai and Panchgaon. The BGB has only 10 border observation posts along those roughly 92 kilometres, and officials concede that round-the-clock surveillance of every stretch of the hilly border is difficult.

Local sources say drugs and other goods enter through these points at night. After crossing, a consignment is not taken straight to a distant destination; it is first kept in a warehouse, a home or another safe place, and later moved inside the country in smaller loads when the opportunity arises.

Information gathered in the inquiry indicates that the person bringing drugs across the border usually does not carry the whole consignment to a distant destination. Near the border he hands it to someone else, and it changes hands several more times: one person carries, another guards, another arranges transport and another stores it. Those at the very end of the chain therefore have no direct contact with the main dealers, so raids often catch carriers while the financiers, local coordinators and main suppliers behind them remain unidentified.

Once inside, the drugs move along various roads. Local sources describe three likely routes: from the border through Bhabanipur or Barmari to Durgapur town and then along the Birishiri-Shyamganj regional highway to Netrokona or Mymensingh; from Bijoypur through Kullagora and Dhobaura to Mymensingh or Dhaka; and from the border through Nazirpur or Lengura to Kalmakanda and on to Netrokona town, Mymensingh or Dhaka. Pickups, trucks, buses, auto-rickshaws, motorcycles and easy bikes are all reported in use, with some vehicles specially modified, and consignments from the Kullagora area have also been reported moving along the Dhobaura-Mymensingh road.

Not only drugs but various Indian goods are also alleged to enter through the border routes, including Indian liquor, phensedyl, yaba and tapentadol alongside blankets, cosmetics, blades, sugar, medicines and mobile phones.

On 14 February 2025 the BGB seized 149 bottles of Indian liquor, a motorcycle and two battery-run vans at Madhukura in Kalmakanda. In April 2026 another 105 bottles were seized at Kathalbari in Kalmakanda, and in June 2025 the BGB recovered 47 bottles ownerless at Kharnai. Ownerless Indian drugs have also been recovered along the Durgapur and Kalmakanda borders in 2026, raising the question of who the consignments were meant for and how often the real owners or financiers are identified after such recoveries.

According to the Department of Narcotics Control and local sources, several smuggling networks are active in the border area. One Kalmakanda-centred group is alleged to collect drugs at the border and deliver them to another party, while another group allegedly gathers drugs from various Durgapur border areas and supplies Netrokona, Mymensingh and Dhaka. A transport-focused network is also reported, tasked with bringing drugs and smuggled goods from the border to designated spots near the district town for onward handover.

The drugs are not confined to the border belt. Local residents allege that after evening, drug users and sellers gather more frequently around the Gujagalia fire service area, Purbabazar Drainpara, Silhala crossing and Montola hospital area in Kalmakanda, and around the Dakshinpara shelter project, Moktarpara and the Makrail shelter project in Durgapur Sadar union. Several shopkeepers, speaking anonymously, said young men arrive from outside, complete quick transactions and leave, dispersing when police appear and returning later in the same way.

Md Nazmul Haque, assistant director of the district Department of Narcotics Control, said regular intelligence-based raids are conducted on the routes used to move drugs from the border, but added that social awareness is also essential alongside enforcement to free the district of drugs. Netrokona additional superintendent of police (DSB) Hafizul Islam said anti-drug operations are run regularly on intelligence, the border areas are kept under constant watch, and action is taken in coordination with the BGB as soon as information arrives.