Staff Reporter :
It is liquid cocaine, which was imported in the name of ‘sunflower oil’ through Chittagong Port. The existence of liquid cocaine has been confirmed conducting test and retest in two separate laboratories in Dhaka, officials said on Saturday.
Director General, Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation [CII], Mainul Khan said, “Cocaine was found in separate tests conducted in two laboratories in Dhaka. There was cocaine in 107 drums, which was imported in the name of sun flower.”
“The samples were sent to Dhaka laboratories after the result of the test conducted in the port city [Chittagong] could not trace any cocaine in the drum, which failed to convince the Chittagong Police….. So far, I think one third of the drum’s 185 kg sunflower oil is liquid cocaine,” the DG CII said.
Experts roughly valued the intoxicating drugs at Tk 200 crore. The Director General of Department of Narcotics Control [DNC] Bazlur Rahman, however, refrained from making any comment despite repeated attempts.
The retests were done in the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research [BCSIR] laboratory and Bangladesh Drug Testing Laboratory [BDTL]. The experts are trying to find out alternative ways to know the actual amount of cocaine in the consignment.
In this backdrop, the DG CII said, “The consignment was suspicious. The company brought the goods without opening any LC [Letter of credit]. They also brought this giving false declaration. No one claimed for the goods for many days. However, we have detected the people who brought the container in Bangladesh.”
“We suspect, the international smuggling groups tried to use Bangladesh as transit route to export the cocaine to other country. We have identified the person who tried to export the container in a third country, “he said.
Port officials said, the container was imported from Bolivia in the name of Khan Jahan Ali Limited at Nabi Market, 232 Khatunganj in Chittagong. As per the import documents, the consignment was declared as ‘sunflower oil’.
There were 107 drums in the container. The container loaded with ‘oil drums’ reached Chittagong port on May 12 from Montevideo of Uruguay. It was written on the drums ‘Sunflower Oil’ in English and ‘Aceite de girasol’ in Spanish and every drum contains 185 kg oil.
But it raised suspicion when none claimed ownership of the container after it reached Chittagong. The CII sealed the container at the new mooring container terminal [NCT] yard of the Chittagong port on June 7 based on the report from a foreign intelligence agency, port officials said.
The physical test of the contents was done the following day in presence of senior officials of Detective Branch [DB] of police, CII, Department of Narcotics Control [DNC], Chittagong Port Authority [CPA] and Bangladesh Navy. The primary test found no trace of cocaine in the 107 drums in the container.
But refuting the claim, Additional Inspector General of Police [Special Branch] Javed Patwary categorically said a foreign intelligence agency confirmed them that there was cocaine in the container.
“The foreign intelligence agency also said that some contraband drugs like liquid cocaine in a container was smuggled from South America to somewhere else using Bangladesh as a transit route,” he said.
“We are confirmed that there is cocaine in one or two drums,” the SB Chief said.
When contacted, Proprietor of Khan Jahan Ali Limited, Nur Mohammad, said that he knew nothing about the consignment. Police, however, detained his manager Md Sohel.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB Tanvir Arafat said that Sohel admitted about importing the container without the knowledge of the owner.
Customs intelligence and detective police’s further investigation revealed that the consignment had no essential import documents.
Sources said that the Chittagong Metropolitan Police [CMP] requested the CPA to seal off the container after getting information and instruction from the INTERPOL on March 13 this year.
