Tk 32 million worth of smuggled gold bars seized at Chittagong airport

Customs officers at Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport have seized nearly Tk 32 million worth of gold bars smuggled into Bangladesh in three different flights.

Fifty-four bars were found scattered and abandoned inside a Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane, which came from Oman. 
 
It landed around 10:30pm on Thursday, said Assistant Commissioner Selim Reza.
 
He told bdnews24.com that each bar weighed 6.3 kg. The market price of the bars would be nearly Tk 27 million, he added.
 
In the second incident, Reza said they found five gold bars on a passenger named ‘Nurus-Safa’ when his body was searched around the same time.
 
The man came in from Oman, too, in an Oman Air flight, the customs official added.
 
The gold bars, each of them weighing nearly 600 grams, were worth Tk 2.5 million, he said.
 
The assistant commissioner said they were taking legal measures over the incidents.
 
Earlier in the morning, the customs officers had recovered four more gold bars from a passenger coming in from Dubai.
 
Assistant Director of Customs Intelligence Department Malekin Naser Akand told bdnews24.com: “Abdul Mannan, 30, came on board a Dubai flight around 9am on Thursday.”
 
“Customs officials searched him and found four bars tucked away in his underwear and shoes,” the official said, adding the haul was worth Tk 2.2 million in the market.
 
Custom officials at the airport also recovered 40 gold bars from a passenger on Wednesday.