The customs authority smelt the involvement of influential quarters including airlines' officials and staffs with the gold smuggling that went up significantly in the recent months.
This perception of the customs authority formed, as it was found that most of the smuggled gold had been seized from inside different airlines' aircraft and boarding bridges.
The gold had been seized from an aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, a boarding bridge of the Emirates Airways, the washroom of the Regent Airways and from a passenger bus of the United Airways.
The largest gold haul of about 124 kilograms (kg) was made from a Biman aircraft last year.
An investigation has been launched to unearth the fact about smuggling and identify the persons involved.
When asked about the investigation, Director General of the customs intelligence and inspection wing Moinul Khan declined to comment.
Customs sources said it was evident that one or more of the airlines' officials were involved with the smuggling.
"Smugglers prefer air routes as, we guess, they have formed a network with some of the airlines' officials, crews or staffs," a customs official said.
The probe committee will submit its report within a short time after getting to know the names of officials who were on duty during seizure of the gold.
Customs sources smelt involvement of airline engineers as gold bars were hidden inside aircraft by skilled and technical hands.
Customs officials said some airline staffers and six passengers were on the list of suspects of law enforcers.
Those six passengers frequently traveled from Dubai and came without having any check-in luggage, they said.
Sources concerned said the gold smugglers had been involved in gold smuggling for long with support of some influential quarters.
It had been also found that many of the gold smugglers, caught by the customs wing, had been released from jail without taking punitive measures against them thanks to intervention of big shots, the sources said.
Around 27 people had been arrested since April 2013 in connection with the smuggling in gold through air routes.
From April to December, 2013 the customs intelligence had seized around 520 kg of gold bars against 25 kg in the corresponding period of the previous year.
When it comes to the largest gold haul, the customs wing found the smuggled gold in a separate chamber inside an aircraft.
A senior customs official said they had found rusts on screws of the chamber which proved that it was opened several times to unload the smuggled gold.
"Other screws beside the chamber were new and intact. There is a permanent hole in the body of the aircraft for hiding smuggled products," he said.
The investigation committee is trying to identify the passengers by collecting information about them from different sources, he said.
Sources said several rounds of investigation by the customs authority initially found a section of influential quarters playing their part behind the screen.
In a letter, dated January 15, the former commissioner of Dhaka Customs House (DCH) Zakia Sultana said it was evident that airline officials were involved in smuggling in the gold found inside a private aircraft.
"The process of carrying gold inside the aircraft and behind the looking glass of a washroom provides ground for the allegation," she wrote in the letter.
Initiatives should be taken to assess the responsibility of airlines' officials, crews and cleaners for the smuggling, she wrote.
Director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Wing Commander MK Zakir Hassan said a section of beneficiaries and big shots had been involved with the gold smuggling for long.
Mr Hassan said investigation should be launched to identify the main culprits rather than pointing finger at the poor people working with the airline companies.
"Some of the gold smugglers are being caught by law enforcing authorities as the authorities have beefed up security," he said.
M Kamrul Islam, assistant general manager (public relations) of the United Airways, said it was quite embarrassing to point finger at the local airlines' officials.
"The United airways has been operating flights on both local and international routes with reputation for long seven years," he added.
He, however, said they were yet to know about any such blame from the government officials.
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