Foreign agents involved
Airports major routes for smuggling gold
Bangladesh has now become a major transit point for international smuggling because of its strategic geographical position. Seizure of a huge number of gold bars at
airports in the recent months gives indication that the smugglers have chosen the country as their prime route, sources said on Saturday.They said smuggling of gold through air routes taken an alarming rise in the recent times following sharp boom in the prices of the yellow metal all over the globe
including Bangladesh and India. Most of the gold consignments seized in Bangladesh were brought from the Middle Eastern countries and destined to land in India.
Customs officials at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the city yesterday seized more gold bars weighing about 5.5 kg and foreign currency worth Tk 2.7
million on Saturday. They also arrested two Indians – Dinesh Kumar, 40, and Suresh Kumar, 38, in this connection.
The duo came to Dhaka from Dubai by an Itihad Airways flight which landed at the airport at about 4:30 am. The flight was scheduled to fly for Kolkata.
This is the fifth seizure of contraband gold in a month at the airport, spotlighting once again that the massive rise in the amount of gold being smuggled into the
country.
The Airport Customs Department this year (up to November 12) has seized 341.48 kilogram (kg) of smuggled gold valued at Tk 143.34 crore. This was only 17.50 kg last
year.
“The smugglers are increasingly using unique modus operandi in bringing the gold consignments into the country using air routes. Unless you have specific information
you can’t seize such consignments,” a senior customs official at HSIA told The New Nation yesterday.
He added: Though we have had good success, we believe a lot of consignments are finding their way into the wrong places.
Alarmed by the steep rise in gold haul cases, the Customs Department has also intensified their vigilance, he said.
Intelligent sources, however, said that some recent seizures were only a fraction of what was actually being smuggled through the airports.
“The growing number of gold haul indicates that the smugglers are now frequently using air routes as the safe passage for their illicit business,” a senior Special
Branch (SB) official told The New Nation yesterday, asking not to be named.
He added: They are now flying consignments of gold to Bangladesh and then using couriers to carry them across the Indian border.
The SB official further said, the smuggled gold was bought in places like Dubai and Thailand and flown to Dhaka.
When asked, he said, more than 20 foreign nationals have been arrested for their involvement with the gold haul cases.
“We found that most of the couriers were domestic passengers engaged to deliver the gold transferred to them by international passengers on board. Others were seasoned
couriers, probably doing the job for a small commission,” he added.
The SB official noted that smuggling of gold through air routes continued to rise in the recent months following imposition of a higher import duty on the yellow metal
by the Indian government.
“We apprehend more such incidents, and therefore plan to deploy additional staff at the airport,” he said, adding, “We will also engage joint efforts with the airport
customs against smuggling.”
The recent gold seizures both at the Dhaka and Chittagong airports are given bellow:
On Nov 18, 128 bars were seized from a passenger at Shah Amanat Airport in Chittagong.
On Nov 15, police seized two kg of gold from a passenger at the airport in Dhaka.
On Nov 12, 320 gold bars, weighing 37 kg and valued at Tk 150 million, were seized from a Qatar Airways flight at the Shahjalal International Airport in the capital.
On Nov 2, a total of 41 gold bars were seized from the two airports within a span of two hours.
Again, between Oct 29 and 30, 164 bars weighing 20 kg were seized.
Nearly 30 kg of gold was found in the toilet of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight that landed from Dubai on Oct 22.
On Oct 1, 14 gold bars were seized from a Doha flight that landed at Chittagong’s Shah Amanat Airport.
In Aug, 156 gold bars weighing 18 kg were seized from a sports bag at Shahjalal airport.
Customs officials on Aug 20 seized 7.5 kg of gold from an Indian citizen when he was about to board a Kolkata-bound flight after coming from Hong Kong.
On July 24, 124 gold bars were recovered at the same airport from a flight coming from Nepal.
Some 146 gold bars were seized from a passenger in Chittagong airport in mid July.
On July 6, gold bars weighing 25 kg were seized at the Dhaka airport from a flight that had arrived from Kuwait.
-With The New Nation input
