Customs officials early Tuesday seized at least 220 gold bars weighing around 27 kilograms at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital and Shah Amanat International Airport in the Chittagong city. None was, however, arrested in these connections.
In the capital, the officials seized at least 160 bars weighing around 20 kilograms at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at about 5:30am.
The bars were recovered from the bathroom of a flight from Kuala Lumpur , said customs assistant commissioner Wazed Ali.
He said on secrete information the officials raided the flight of Regent Airways (RX-783) which landed at the airport at about 5:15am.
Sensing their raid, the carrier abandoned the bars at the toilet and left the aircraft, said Wazed.
The gold bars, the current price of which is around Tk 8 crore, were found wrapped in eight pieces of black cloth, he said.
On information that someone was smuggling gold, the customs official searched the aircraft – RX-783 – that came from Malaysia and made the recovery, the customs official said.
The filing of a departmental case was under process.
New Age Chittagong correspondent reported that the customs authorities seized at least 60 gold bars weighing seven kg from the passenger cabin at an incoming flight on Tuesday morning at Shah Amanat International Airport.
The market value of the seized gold is Tk 3 crore.
Assistant customs commissioner of Chittagong customs Moshiur Rahman Mondol said the gold bars were recovered in an abandoned state from a Bangladesh Biman BG-026 flight from Dubai at 10.00am.
No one was arrested in this regard, he added.
Three people including two Indian nationals were detained in separate hauls on November 23 with 11 gold bars weighing over six kilograms.
With these seizures, custom officials hauled 9 consignments of gold in the last three months.
-With New Age input
