Snake venom worth Tk 75cr seized in Dhaka

Rapid Action Battalion seized snake venom worth Tk 75 crore and arrested six persons from Dakshinkhan area in the capital on Thursday afternoon.

The arrestees were identified as Masud Rana (24), Sofir Uddin Sanu (50), Tamjidul Islam Monir (34), Alamgir Hossain (26), Firoza Begum (57) and Asma Begum (42).

The six, supposedly members of an international snake venom smuggling racket, were arrested while they were gathering in Gulbar Munsi Sarani area around 3:30pm, said Abdullah Al Mamun, assistant director (media) of Rab-2.

After searching a bag one of them was carrying officials found the snake venom kept in glass jars.

The value of the venom is worth around Tk 75 crore, added the assistant director.

During primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted that they used to collect the venom from different areas to supply to a specific ring, the officials said. Filing of a case is underway in this regard, they added.

According to different law enforcement agencies, the smugglers were using Bangladesh as a route to smuggle the venom into Indonesia and Malaysia and some other countries.

On November 25, Criminal Investigation Department of police seized snake venom worth Tk 9 crore and arrested two smugglers from Gazipur.

Snake venom is used in Asian traditional medicine.