Arrestees remanded

Investigators were keen to identify the persons involved in smuggling liquid cocaine into Bangladesh as they took three arrestees on 10-day remand through a Chittagong court yesterday.

“We will try to know who else were involved in smuggling cocaine and what was its possible destination,” said Tanvir Arafat, additional deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of police in Chittagong.

Metropolitan Magistrate Farid Alam placed the three arrestees -- Atiqur Rahman, Mostafa Kamal and AK Azad -- on remand in the cocaine haul case after investigators produced them before the court.

The trio were picked up by Customs Intelligence officials in Dhaka and Chittagong on Tuesday.

Tanvir said they would start grilling the three and another arrestee Sohel today.

Arrested on June 6, Sohel was placed on five-day remand by another Chittagong court on Monday.

The four allegedly made an effort to release the consignment of 107 barrels of oil that arrived at Chittagong port on May 12. The liquid cocaine was hidden in one of the barrels while the others contained sunflower oil.

The arrestees also tried to either re-export the consignment or send it back to Uruguay, from where it was loaded onto a ship, said Customs Intelligence officials.

The consignment was detected at the port on June 8.

Atiqur and his uncle Mostafa contacted with Sohel, an employee of Khan Jahan Ali Ltd, regarding the consignment.

The shipment was brought from Bolivia via Uruguay for Khan Jahan Ali Ltd. But the firm claimed that it never had any business with any Bolivian company.

The four were tipped off by Bakul Mia, a Bangladesh-born UK citizen. Investigators suspected that Bakul, a relative of Atiqur and Mostafa, has a lot of information about the liquid cocaine, said Customs Intelligences sources.

Azad, a manager of Cosco (Bangladesh) Shipping Lines, helped Atiqur and Mostafa in a failed attempt to release the consignment from the port.