Dhaka Customs House, customs intelligence and National Security Intelligence (NSI), in a joint drive, seized over 28 kg of smuggled gold worth around Tk 280 million at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka on Sunday.
Some 25 kg of gold has been seized under the seat of a plane of the Emirates Airlines, while another 3.33 kg of gold was detected in the rectum of three passengers who arrived from Dubai, said a press statement.
The investigation team searched seats of both economy and business class of flight number EK-584 of the airlines. At first, they found 16 round-shaped products wrapped with blue scotch tape in the economy class's seat no 38E-8 and 38F-9. After that, the team launched a massive search in the aircraft, suspecting the products were smuggled gold.
Later, the team found gold under 12 more seats of the plane of the Emirates Airlines.
The products have been identified as wet paste of raw gold after examination by the gold examiner.
However, the customs could not find anyone involved with the smuggling.
On the same day, the Dhaka Custom House also seized 3.33 kg gold worth around Tk 38 million from three passengers of EK-586, a flight from Dubai.
The passengers are Jahangir Alam, Akbar Hossain and Moshiur Rahman Rubel.
The gold was detected inside the rectum of the passengers. They were handed over to the Airport Police Station. A criminal case was also filed against them.
"An investigation committee would be formed later to find out any involvement of airlines officials to take further action," additional commissioner of Dhaka Customs House Kazi Farid Uddin said.
The gold would be preserved in the customs valuable godown first and after completion of the investigation it will be deposited at the central bank, he said.
He further said the smugglers adopted new strategies for gold smuggling. They started carrying gold in paste form instead of carrying bars as bars could easily be detected by the custom's archway.
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