Three arrested in Dhaka over liquid cocaine to spend 10 days on police remand

A magistrate has given police 10 days to question three people arrested in Dhaka over liquid cocaine found in edible oil barrels at Chittagong port.

The court of Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Farid Alam remanded Atikur Rahman Khan, AK Azad and Mostafa Kamal into police custody on Thursday.

Police are interrogating Golam Mostafa Sohel, an executive of a firm that imported the sunflower oil consignment, after his arrest in Chittagong.

Among the three, Khan is a sales executive of garment exporter Mandal Group and Azad is the manager (corporate, sales and marketing) of Cosco Bangladesh Shipping Lines Limited.

Detectives suspect Kamal’s relative Bakul Mia masterminded the smuggling.

Bangladeshi citizen Mia lives in the UK. The trio were arrested in Dhaka on June 30.

They were produced before court on Thursday on being brought to Chittagong on Wednesday night.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police’s (CMP) Additional Deputy Commissioner (Prosecution) Kazi Muttaki Ibnu Minan told bdnews24.com, “The court granted the appeal of a 10-day remand for those arrested.”

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Golam Mostafa Sohel in early June, well before samples from the sunflower oil barrels were tested.

Sohel was shown arrested in the case filed after tests revealed the presence of liquid cocaine in a barrel on June 28.

Another suspect in the case, Nur Mohammad, Chairman of Khan Jahan Ali Limited, had gone into hiding.

Customs Intelligence and Investigation (CII) directorate officials suspect drug smugglers of the UK, Bolivia, India, and Bangladesh are involved in the shipment of the cocaine-tainted edible oil consignment.

Port officials said the container had reached the Chittagong port on May 12 after being loaded at Montevideo in Uruguay.

The sunflower oil consignment was in the name of Khan Jahan Ali Limited of Chittagong’s Khatunganj.

No one claimed ownership of the container even after it was unloaded at Chittagong.

On June 7, the CII sealed it at the port’s NCT yard on the basis of intelligence they received.

A physical test was done the next day in the presence of senior officials of the Detective Branch (DB), customs intelligence, Department of Narcotics Control, Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Bangladesh Navy.

The preliminary test found no existence of cocaine in the 107 drums in the container.

The sample was sent to Dhaka since police were not satisfied with the test done at the port.

On June 28, authorities confirmed the presence of liquid cocaine in subsequent sample tests.

The narcotics were found in separate tests done in two laboratories in Dhaka.

A third of the 185-kg barrel of sunflower oil was liquid cocaine, the detectives confirmed.

The CII is investigating the smuggling.