Bangladesh customs seizes 170 gold bars

By Sheuli Akter
DHAKA, Oct. 30 (NsNewsWire) — Just one day after seizing 146 gold bars, customs officials in Bangladesh’s main airport in capital Dhaka Wednesday morning again seized 24 gold bars weighing about 3 kilograms from an arriving passenger from Saudi Arabia, an official said.
Nazma Zabin, assistant commissioner of the Customs Intelligence Department,  said that “We’ve seized 24 gold bars weighing about 3 kilograms from Shohel Ahmed who landed here from Saudi Arabia by Emirates Airlines.”
“During the search,  Ahmed was found carrying 24 gold bars some attached to his body,”she said.
On Tuesday Customs officials in Bangladesh’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka also seized 146 gold bars weighing about 17 kilograms shortly after arrival of a flight from from Hong Kong.
Coming from Hong Kong,  the flight of Biman Bangladesh Airline,  the national flag carrier of the South Asian country, landed in Dhaka at around 10:30 p.m.

   No one was arrested in connection with the seizure as the culprit involved in the smuggling manged to escape the scene, Zabin said.
   Acting on a tip-off, she said the customs officials conducted a raid and found the gold bars in few bags lying in a toilet of the airport.
   Sources said most of the time only the carriers are being caught, but the real smugglers remain behind the scene.
   They said organized gangs of local smugglers having link with their foreign sidekicks are increasingly using Bangladesh as a route for the illegal transportation of gold, foreign currencies, contraband drug and medicines.
    Last year Bangladesh police seized 117 gold bars weighing 13- and-a-half kilograms and arrested a Dubai returnee at the airport in Dhaka.
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0512/2013
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