Nazmul Haider Buyiyan Bulbul, a former official of BD Foods Limited, and his cohort Mokhlesur Rahman Nayan, a cargo handler, told a magistrate they carried out the smuggling at the directive of the top authorities of the company.

In the evening, soon after the confessional statements, four high-ranking law enforcers led by Special Police Super Ibrahib Fatemi of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) busted into Badruddoza's house at Plot 3, Road 43, Gulshan 2 in the city, and arrested him.

"We have arrested Badruddoza Momen as his name came up in the confessional statements of Nazmul and Mokhles," Ibrahib Fatemi, who also heads a five-member probe team into the smuggling of 75.5kg heroin to the UK, told The Daily Star.

Two probe team members -- Major Wasimul Hasan of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and Additional Police Super Abul Kalam of Special Branch (SB) -- and the investigation officer of the case, CID Inspector Nurul Alam, were the three other law enforcement officers who took part in the raid.

As on eight o'clock last night, the probe team was interrogating Badruddoza at the CID office in Malibagh, sources said.

According to court sources, in his confession to Metropolitan Magistrate Nani Gopal Biswas, Nazmul said BD Foods authorities posted him at Chittagong airport to traffic the heroin.

Both of them said Nazmul hired Mokhles, a cargo handler, to assist him. Together they smuggled 22.5kg of the drug in two shipments of vegetables and other food items, and tissue papers and cosmetics.

Trustee Trading Agency was the clearing and forwarding agent of the consignments, they told the court.

Two UK buyers financed the smuggling, a source quoted them as saying. However, the source did not disclose the names of the buyers for the sake of investigation.

Nazmul collected the drug from Shapla Chattar at Motijheel and Maskat Plaza at Uttara in the capital for a man and two women, the court source said but declined to disclose the suppliers' names.

At Nazmul's instruction, Mokhles rented a warehouse for Tk 3,000 a month at Tongi for packing the drug in cartons of vegetables. Mokhles bought various vegetables including a number of pumpkins from Karwan Bazar kitchen market.

They also packed heroin in cartons of biscuit in Motijheel.

Nazmul received Tk 13 lakh and Mokhles Tk 25,000 as rewards for the job.

The CID-led team started the probe on a home ministry directive after a National Board of Revenue (NBR) inquiry had found five Bangladeshi business firms' involvement in heroin smuggling to the UK. The NBR took up the inquiry last year as the UK customs in a message through the British mission in Mumbai, India accused BD Foods Ltd, Emdad Traders, Jamil International, MM Enterprise, and Green Heaven Enterprise of trafficking 75.5kg heroin to the UK.

With the arrest of Badruddoza, the team so far has arrested seven people for their suspected involvement in the drug running. The other arrestees are Mainuddin and Abu Bakar Siddique Mithu of BD Foods, Mokhlesur Rahman, an associate of Abu Bakar, Nazmul, Kazi Zafar Reza of Rainbow Enterprise, and Abul Bashar of Green Heaven Enterprise.

The CID also found evidence of Zafar's and Abul Bashar's involvement in smuggling 54kg more heroin to the UK hidden in floor tiles. They filed another case against the two with Sutrapur Police Station.

Besides, a primary investigation by the customs intelligence found indication of Rainbow Enterprise, in collusion with two other firms -- Tipu Enterprise and a Kakrail-based company -- smuggling 72kg more of the drug to the UK in October last year.

BADRUDDOZA'S PAST
Our Noakhali correspondent adds: Badruddoza hails from Bashurhat municipality under Companiganj upazila of Noakhali. His father, the late Abdul Khaleque, set up a stationery shop in Bashurhat Bazaar in about 1930 and his family runs mainly on the income from that shop, local sources said.

Badruddoza started an import-export business in Dhaka in 1981. He used a rented house at Malibagh as his office-cum-residence. In 1985 he started to export fish and vegetables to some Middle East countries and shifted his office to the present address of BD Foods -- 9 DIT Avenue, Motijheel.

BD Foods Managing Director Badrul Haider Chowdhury and daily Naya Diganta Director Hasan Shahriar Chowdhury are his two sons.

His village neighbours said Badruddoza has good ties with local- and national-level leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. He played a vital role in the recent municipal election, they said, adding he spent a huge sum for the election campaign of Jamaat candidate AKM Mohammad Ali, while his Bashurhat house was used as the campaign base.