7 held with gold at Dhaka airport

Customs officials have arrested seven people for illegal possession of 119 gold bars, weighing about 14 kg, at Shahjalal International Airport.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 July 2014, 02:51 PM
Updated : 13 July 2014, 02:52 PM

They have been detained from a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight, coming from Dubai via Sylhet to Dhaka.

Rashedul Hasan, assistant commissioner of Customs at Shahjalal International, told bdnews24.com, “The market price of the gold is Tk 70 million.”

File Photo

The detainees are Chittagong’s Jashimuddin, 32, Amir Hossain, 32, Nazim Uddin, 36, Feni’s Rashed Chowdhury, 28, Lokman Bhuiyan, 25, Comilla’s Md Salauddin, 22, and Anwer Hossain, 23.
Customs officials said the Dubai-Dhaka flight had 160 passengers. Forty-two of them got off in Sylhet, while 42 internal passengers boarded the flight for Dhaka.
The seven detained people were among the 42 internal passengers.
Their movements inside the airport had aroused suspicion. Each of them was individually searched. The gold bars were found tied to their legs.
Some had 20 bars on them, while some others had 12.
One customs official told bdnews24.com on condition of anonymity, “Internal flight passengers have a separate route to exit the airport. They are not subjected to rigorous customs check there. Smugglers often take advantage of this.”