Staff Reporter :Members of Customs Intelligence and Investigation on Tuesday arrested three people in the capital for their alleged involvement in cocaine consignment that seized in the Chittagong port.The arrestees were identified as AKM Azad, manager of Kosko Shipping Bangladesh, Mostafa Kamal and Md Atiqur Rahman. Officials said Azad was involved in re-exporting that container which had the barrels of edible oil where traces of liquid cocaine were found.Mostafa Kamal and Atiqur Rahman were picked up by investigators who came in from Chittagong, Customs Intelligence and Investigation’s (CII) Director General Mainul Khan said at a press briefing at its Segunbagicha headquarters in the afternoon.A team had picked up Md Atiqur Rahman from the office of Mondol Group in Uttara around 9:00am. Later, Mostofa Kamal was apprehended after being called out to Gulshan by telephone.Atiqur Rahman is a commercial executive who oversees import and export operations of Mondol Group.Mainul Khan said that some legal procedures are pending and they will hand over the arrestees to police after further questioning. “We have repeatedly said the cocaine was not intended for Bangladesh and was to be re-exported to a third country,” he said.
He added a UK-based Bangladeshi named Bakul Mia was the ringleader and the key person behind the import.
His cousin Kamal was entrusted with the job of ensuring that the container got past the port inspection.
Kamal took Atiqur Rahman’s help to utilise his experience on the matter.
Mainul Khan clarified that none of the three worked for Khan Jahan Ali Limited, the company that imported the containers of sunflower oil from Uruguay. He said even though the containers came in via Uruguay, the cocaine was loaded in Bolivia.
An Indian citizen named ‘Raju’ is also linked to the group and was supposed to arrive in Bangladesh the day the containers were seized.
They initially wanted to unload the containers, but after finding out that they did not have appropriate papers, they tried to re-export it to Kolkata or send them back to Uruguay.
Mainul Khan hoped they would get the ringleader based on the information extracted from the three.
Customs Investigations Wing Chief trashed rumours of another person named ‘Fazlur’ being involved.
“They were linked to Bakul. Bakul hailed from Moulvibazar. They do not know any Fazlur.”
He further said the four-member committee, formed to look into the matter, conducted the drives in Chittagong and Dhaka, and seized computers and documents before the breakthrough.
The department’s Additional Director General for Chittagong Hossain Ahmed headed the probe panel that included Deputy Director Zakir Hossain, Assistant Director Omar Faruk and Assistant Revenue Officer Aminur Rahman.
Bandar Police Station OC AKM Mohiuddin Selim said Sub-Inspector Osman Gani had filed the case under Narcotics Control Act on Sunday, naming two persons.
The accused are Chairman of Khan Jahan Ali Ltd Nur Mohammad and its employee ‘Sohel.’ The latter was arrested after the seizure of the drug.
Existence of liquid cocaine was found in barrels of edible oil, seized from a container at the port, after their contents were retested in two laboratories in Dhaka — the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and Bangladesh Drug Testing Laboratory (BDTL).
Police said they had shown Sohel arrested in the case and appealed to the court for a five-day remand to interrogate him.
Mainul Khan said he suspected a third of the 185 kg drum of sunflower oil was liquid cocaine.
As per the import documents, the consignment was that of sunflower oil. The CII sealed the container at the NCT yard of Chittagong port on June 7 based on an intelligence report.
The physical test of the contents was done the following day in presence of senior officials of Detective Branch (DB) of police, customs intelligence, Department of Narcotics Control, Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Bangladesh Navy.
Initial tests had found no trace of cocaine in the 107 drums in the container.
On that day, Additional Inspector General of Police Javed Patwary said a foreign intelligence agency had confirmed them that there was indeed cocaine in the container.
