The foreign ministry has already written to the British High Commission in Dhaka requesting it to take steps regarding the Bangladeshi investigators' trip to the UK.

"We're expecting to get a nod from the UK government in a day or two in this regard," said a source in the home ministry seeking anonymity. The source said it would take a week or a little more to send the investigation team to the UK after that.

The foreign ministry wrote to the British High Commission following a home ministry request that came after the CID-led probe committee wrote to the home ministry emphasising the necessity of the visit.

A member of the probe team said evidence of the seized heroin has to be placed before the court and persons who made the seizure list have to give their statements before the court to ensure punishment of those involved in the smuggling of the illicit drugs.

Sources in the home ministry said the ministry would request the UK government to ask the officials who prepared the seizure list to give their statements before the court in Bangladesh.

The probe committee proposed names of all the five members and two investigation officers to the home ministry for the trip to UK. However, the home ministry will finalise whether the seven men would go to the UK. The home ministry will bear all expenses for their visit.

The CID-led investigation team started the probe on a home ministry directive after a National Board of Revenue (NBR) inquiry found five Bangladeshi business firms' involvement in heroin smuggling to the UK.

The NBR launched 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 smuggling 75.5kg heroin to the UK.

On May 14, police arrested Badruddoza Momen following the confessions of his two accomplices -- Nazmul Haider Buyiyan Bulbul, a former official of BD Foods Limited, and his cohort Mokhlesur Rahman Nayan, a cargo handler -- to have smuggled 22.5kg heroin to the UK on Momen's orders.

Badruddoza, who is now in jail, admitted to the interrogators that he had smuggled illegal goods to the UK a few days before his arrest.

Kazi Zafar Reza, proprietor of Rainbow Enterprise, and Abul Bashar, owner of Green Haven Enterprise, had also confessed to a magistrate that they smuggled 54kg heroin to the same country.

The manager of BD Foods Mohammad Mainuddin also gave a confessional statement before a magistrate in connection with the heroin smuggling.