Gold smuggling gang busted

Gold bars seized at Paltan in the capital and passports and foreign currencies seized at Hazrat Shahjalal Int'l Airport yesterday are displayed at the Detective Branch office on Minto Road.Photo: Banglar Chokh

Detectives yesterday said they had busted a gold smuggling gang arresting 10 including its ringleader and seized 70 gold bars weighing eight kilograms and worth around Tk 3.6 crore.
Nine people of the gang except ringleader Nazrul Islam Liton, 46, were scheduled to fly for Malaysia Sunday evening, said Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam of Detective Branch (DB) of police at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) media centre in the capital.
The nine were arrested near the Boarding Bridge-2 at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with nine passports and currencies of different countries worth Tk 35 lakh, he added.
Acting on the information they had provided, the detectives arrested ringleader Liton raiding his house at Purana Paltan in the city a day later, he informed.  
The law enforcers recovered 70 gold bars, Tk 3 lakh in cash and 5,000 Saudi riyals from Liton's possession.
The estimated price of eight kg gold bars was worth around Tk 3.6 crore, said DC (Media) of DMP Masudur Rahman.
Monirul said after a seizure of 106 gold bars at Dhaka airport on April 27, detectives started investigation and launched a massive hunt for the people involved that led to the arrest.
He claimed the 106 gold bars worth Tk 46 crore were smuggled by the same gang.
Quoting the arrestees, the DMP spokesperson said Liton stayed most of his time in Singapore and Dubai and smuggled gold into Bangladesh by other members of the gang through different airports.
Another team of the gang later smuggled the gold to neighbouring countries including India, he added.
The gang used to smuggle gold twice a week and had been involved in the crime for several years, Monirul further said.
The joint commissioner added the arrestees during preliminary interrogation had confessed that some vested quarters both in and outside the airport favoured them in exchange of money.
"We have got some names and are investigating the matter to be confirmed of their involvement," he added.
The nine arrestees are Ekramul Huq Parvez, 51, Mizanur Rahman Ripon, 32, Abul Hossain Suman, 33, Asim Kumar Sinha, 37, Abdul Kader, 33, Anisur Rahman, 34, Babul Poddar, 54, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, 41, and Jahidur Rahman, 35.