The Bangladesh Bank (BB) took the step on a request of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police for the banking information it deems vital for its investigation that points at involvement of these 12 firms in the international drug running, BB and CID sources said.

Besides, prompted by media reports on the drug trafficking in the guise of export, the BB asked its Anti-Money Laundering Department to look into the bank transactions of the suspect companies to check if any money-laundering has been taken place, a BB high official told The Daily Star.

In yesterday's letter, the BB directed every commercial bank to submit by May 9 all information about any account opened with it by any of the 12 suspect organisations including account opening forms, other banking documents, all transactions etc.

Nine of the 12 companies are sister concerns and have the same address -- 9 DIT Avenue, Motijheel, Dhaka. They are BD Food Limited, Universal Trade International, Al Ajmir Trade International, King & Company, Camellia International, Oriental Export, Greenway Traders, Famous Business Internationals, and BD Sea Food.

The address of BD Food Corporation, yet another sister concern of BD Food Limited, is Sagarika Road in Chittagong. The remaining two business houses on the suspect-list are NHB Corporation and Rainbow International. NHB Corporation is based at 28/G/1 Toynbee Circular Road, Motijheel, Dhaka, and Rainbow International at Al Baraka Tower, 252 New Elephant Road, Dhaka.

Though UK customs brought allegations against five companies, during the process of investigation the CID found enough ground to suspect involvement of some other organisations too.

A 4-member team comprising representatives of the CID, BB and National Board of Revenue (NBR) is coordinating the investigations.

Apart from smuggling and illegal money transactions, the coordination team is also trying to detect collusion between any bank official and the racketeers.

The Central Intelligence Cell of NBR has also launched a separate investigation on its own into the international drug smuggling.

Sources said by synthesising the findings of all the investigations undertaken by the BB, NBR and CID, the investigators will try to arrive at a clear picture of how the smuggling was carried out, by whom, and how and to what extent the suspect companies are involved in it.

According to sources, the British government is closely monitoring the progress of probes by Bangladesh authorities.

The UK customs in May 2005 accused five Bangladeshi business firms of smuggling heroin to the United Kingdom in the guise of food, toiletries, cosmetics and floor tiles.

An NBR investigation confirmed the validity of the UK customs' allegations and involvement of the following five companies in the dirty racket.

They are BD Foods Limited, Emdad Traders, Jamil International, MM Enterprise, and Green Heaven Enterprise, who sent apparently legitimate consignments containing heroin to Ocean Line Foods and Bengal Bay and Coastal Spices in the UK several times.