Shah Alam Nur :
The gold smuggling through the country’s three international airports has intensified, as the airports have no surveillance equipment.
The three airports are used as bridge for smuggling of gold into the neighbouring countries.
Though the customs intelligence, Detective Branch of Police and Airport Armed Police (AAP), have strengthened their surveillance at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), gold smugglers sneak through a number of loopholes.
Apart from airport’s 12 gates, there are some small points through which smuggled gold consignments are missing
from the airport with the help of some dishonest employees of Bangladesh Biman Airlines and Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB), said an intelligence officer posted at HSIA preferring not to be named. Besides, absence of security equipment like ‘in-built heavy luggage scanners’ in conveyor belts, vehicle scanners in 12 exit gates and ‘mega body scanners’, are making the smuggling easy, the intelligence officer said. The gold is smuggled into the country from different countries in the Middle East alongside, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand through airways. Portions of the smuggled gold are smuggled out to neighbouring India, while the gold traders and other sectors in Bangladesh use the remaining portion.
Thirty gold smuggling syndicates, including seven foreign ones, are involved with bringing gold consignments illegally, while about 200 employees of Biman Bangladesh Airlines are involved with the incidents of gold smuggling, according to an intelligence report.
Seven of the syndicates are active at HSIA, three at Shah Amanat International Airport (SAIA) and one at MAG Osmani airport, the report added. As vigilance is limp at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong and MAG Osmani International Airport in Sylhet, the smugglers find it easy to use those airports for releasing their gold consignments. According to Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), more 1,000 KG of smuggled gold had been seized by different government agencies at three international airports and different other places of the country in last one year.
Besides, over 500 officials and employees of Bangladesh Biman, Civil Aviation Authorities and different other government agencies posted at the airports had so far been arrested for their reported involvement in smuggling activities. Smuggling of gold into Bangladesh has increased in recent years, Moinul Khan, Director General of CIID told The New Nation on Wednesday. He said, “The seizure of the huge quantity of smuggled gold proves that we are active against the gold smuggling activities as well as against the smugglers.”
He said, “We are able to estimate only the quantity of the seized gold. But it is not possible to estimate the amount of smuggled gold, which could not be checked.” He said the gold smuggling has increased as Indian gold traders have been using Bangladesh as transit route for smuggling since 2013 when the Indian government hiked the import duty on gold three times, eventually to 15 percent. When his attention was drawn to gold smuggling through international airports, Chairman of CAAB Air-Vice Marshal M Sanaul Huq admitted that gold smuggling is now a big concern. CAAB along with other agencies are trying to control it, he said adding that they have started the process of forming the Aviation Security Force (AvSec) under CAAB to prevent various crimes using the airways, including gold smuggling.
