Tk 87 lakh gold, Cellphone sets, drugs seized at ZIA

Customs officials at Zia Inter-national Airport (ZIA) seized large caches of cell phone sets, import-banned medicines and gold ornaments worth about Tk 87 lakh on Monday and Tuesday.

One kilogram of gold ornaments and 425 mobile phone sets were confiscated Tuesday night from a home bound passenger of Singapore Airlines flight SQ-436. The customs team on duty at the ZIA challenged the passenger when he was passing through the green channel and found the goods in his luggage.

The phone sets were seized the carrier had no no-objection certificate from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for importing those.

In another raid Tuesday, customs officials seized contraband medicines worth about Tk 18 lakh from two bags that arrived by Gulf Airways flight GF-458 and lying near a conveyer belt.

Scanning the bags on suspicion, the customs team unearthed and confiscated 24 kinds of import-banned medicines, including Methergin, Nolvadex, Neoral, Gynaecosid and Aldactone tablets and Neoral injection. The carrier of the banned medications melted away in the crowd of passengers sensing the detection, officials said.

Earlier, on Monday night, customs officials seized 289 mobile phone sets and 20 walkie-talkie sets worth about Tk 26 lakh from some luggage that arrived by Bangladesh Biman flight BG-079 and left abandoned on a conveyer belt.

Separate departmental cases were filed over the incidents.