Tk 150.50m gold bars seized in 2 airports

In separate incidents, customs officials seized around 33.06 kg gold worth Tk 150.50 million at Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) International Airport in Dhaka and Hazrat Shah Amanat (RA) International Airport in Chittagong on Thursday night and Friday. In Dhaka, 22.56 kgs of gold bars worth about Tk 110 million was recovered at Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) International Airport on Thursday night. On a tip-off, customs officials and members of Airport Armed Police (AAP) recovered 11.66 kg gold from a flight of ‘Emirates Airline’ that landed at the airport from Dubai around 8 pm, said airport sources. In another incident, the AAP members challenged Saiful Islam, a Civil Aviation security man, suspecting his movement and seized 10.9 kg of gold from his possession after searching his body around 8:30 pm. Based on information gleaned from Saiful, the law enforcers arrested two passengers – Monir Hossain, 45, and Abul Hossain, 37, for their alleged involvement in the gold smuggling. The duo arrived at the airport by a flight of Tiger Airlines from Singapore that landed at 7:55 pm. In the port city, customs officials seized around 10.50 kg gold worth Tk 40.50 million at Hazrat Shah Amanat International Airport on Friday. Mashiur Rahman Mondal, assistant commissioner (customs) of the airport, said a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines from Oman’s capital Muscat landed at the airport around 9:30am. The customs officials found 90 bold bars on the overhead of the aircraft in an abandoned condition around 10am, according to UNB.