Police in Lalmonirhat arrested eight people in separate drives against online gambling and drugs, including six members of an online gambling syndicate and two drug dealers.
District Detective Branch (DB) police conducted the operations late Monday night in Sadar upazila and Kaliganj upazila.
A press release issued by the Superintendent of Police’s office confirmed the arrests on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said a DB team acted on secret information and carried out a raid at around 1:30am in Rattipur village under Gokunda union in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila. Officers arrested six people while they were engaged in online gambling and illegal financial transactions inside a house.
The arrested persons are Habibur Rahman, 21, Mehedi Hasan Munna, 22, Asadul Habib, 35, Apel Islam, 22, Limon Islam, 22 and Jahidul Islam, 28. All are residents of different villages in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.
Police recovered five smartphones and 10 SIM cards during the raid. Officials said evidence from the devices showed illegal transactions through more than 30 online gambling apps and websites, including Binance.
A case is being processed under the Cyber Security Ordinance-2025 at Lalmonirhat police station.
In a separate operation the same night, police arrested Minar Rahman, 40, from Rattipur village with 40 yaba tablets, and another man, Suruj Ali, 40, from Chandrapur in Kaliganj upazila with 1kg of cannabis.
Separate cases under the Narcotics Control Act 2018 have been filed against them.
Officer-in-Charge of Lalmonirhat District Detective Police Md Rowshan Kabir said regular drives against drugs and illegal online gambling will continue in the district.
He also sought public cooperation to stop online gambling.
