Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Iqbal Bahar yesterday said eradicating drugs from the society is almost impossible unless their sources are sealed.

“It [drugs] may have been smuggled through 10 corridors in the country and later spread in 10,000 to 50,000 places. It is quite difficult to bring such huge number of people involved in the process to book,” said the CMP boss. He added if the major routes of the narcotics could be closed, it would be easy to annihilate drugs to a large extent.

The CMP chief came up with the remarks at a drug destroying programme held at his office. Law enforcers destroyed 15.39 lakh yaba pills and 9.8 kilogrammes of hemp at the CMP headquarters which were seized during different drives.

Talking to reporters, the commissioner said, “Destroying drugs is a regular police work which is being done upon court order after preserving some samples.

“We have around 15 lakh more yaba pills under our custody which will also be destroyed in the next phase,” he added.

Iqbal Bahar said police have busted  around 145 dens and are keeping a close eye so that the drug dealers cannot return.

Replying to a question, the CMP commissioner said, “They sacked eight policemen last year for their involvement in drugs. They were later sent to jail. If involvement of any police personnel is found, stern action will be taken against them.

“We are showing zero tolerance towards drugs and no one will be spared whatever their identity is,” the CMP boss said.

Chittagong Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Osman Goni, Metropolitan Magistrate Al Imran, Additional Commissioner (Crime) Amena Begum, Additional Commissioner (Traffic) Kusum Dewan, among others, were present.

The police destroyed the yaba pills by soaking those in water, while the hemp was burnt.