Staff reporter :
Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) seized prohibited drug amphetamine powder worth over Tk 24 crore from cargo flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Wednesday.
The drugs were sending to Australia from Bangladesh via Hong Kong by International courier service named FedEx.
Six suspected people who were involved arrested. Arrestees are : Khandaker Iftekhar Uddin Ahmed, 50, executive director (finance) of Bangladesh Express Limited and Russell Mahmud, 32, senior manager (operations), Gazi Shamsul Alam, 43, general manager of United Express. Kajal Thutokish Gomez, Loading Supervisor of MGH Group inside Export Cargo, Cargo Helper / Loader Md. Hamidul Islam, 30 and Md. Nazrul Islam.
Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) Director General (DG) Md Ahsanul Jabbar revealed the information during a press briefing at the DNC headquarter in Dhaka on Thursday.
However, no narcotics are produced in Bangladesh. And, although Bangladesh is not the usual transit route for drug smuggling, it is sometimes used for its geographical position, he said.
The DNC DG said the Amphetamine seized based on intelligence reports had a gross weight of 15.658kg. Later, the product was tested and it was found that the Amphetamine had a net weight of 12.32kg.
“The drugs were inside a consignment of garment items to be exported by a company named Neptune Freight. It was smuggled through FedEx courier service. And the drug’s destination was Australia via Hong Kong,” he added.
Jabbar said that during primary interrogation they found out that Neptune Freight Ltd has an office in Uttara’s Ashkona area. Rubel Hossain of that organization had booked seven cartons to send denims for Australia.
“We also know after primary interrogation that United Express Ltd received seven cartons from Neptune Freight Ltd at the suggestion of United Freight- Dhaka Banani. They later sent the cartons to FedEx. And FedEx later sent it to the cargo village of the airport where it was caught under airport scanner,” he said.
The DG also said that filing of cases are in process regarding the matter.
DNC official said Amphetamine is an illegal drug in Bangladesh which was included in the list of Category A narcotics under the Narcotics Control Act, 2018. This drug has somehow come to Bangladesh. Recipient of the seized drugs: Das Singh 34 Columbia Road, Melbourne Nare Warren LIC 3605.
DNC Director (operation) Golam Rabbani said that they are still working on the matter. “It is a matter of international drug smuggling. It’s not a local issue. We are dealing with the matter very seriously.”
“We found some clues but for investigation purposes, we cannot disclose details. We hope we soon arrest all involved in this matter,” he said.
Replying a question, the director said that neighbouring Myanmar is a stronghold of Amphetamines. “This type of Amphetamine is legally produced in China. It is also legally produced in some places of India. It came using our border with the plan to go to another country.”
“But it did not succeed due to our intelligence surveillance. We have caught many such international smuggling shipments in our country before,” he added.
Replying to another question, this official also said that they are surveilling the courier service so that nobody can smuggle drugs behind different products and also spoke its authority. “We also think that we can adopt a new policy to control them in the future.”
Shafikul Islam Sarker, a chemical expert of DNC, said that the smugglers made a chamber in carton. “They used a thick layer of carbon paper. Then they filled the Amphetamine powder in a small poly pack and used foil paper. And in the middle were jeans trousers. And all this has been done to evade the airport scanner.”
“But it was caught due to our intelligence surveillance and improved scanning system at the airport,” he added.
