Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has sought help from the United Nations (UN) to measure the actual quantity of liquid cocaine found in a barrel that arrived at Chittagong port on May 8.
Sources said that the authorities of the Revenue Board on Monday in a letter requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take necessary steps in this regard.
The Revenue Board in its letter urged the Ministry to invite a team of expert from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to measure the actual quantity of liquid cocaine mixed with sunflower oil.
“We have sought the UNODC’s help through our Foreign Ministry,” a senior official of the Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (DCII) told The New Nation on Monday on condition of anonymity.
He added: The Ministry will seek the UN agency’s help on behalf of the NBR by sending an official letter tomorrow (Tuesday).
Employing about 1,500 people worldwide, the UNODC has its headquarters in Vienna is working to assist the UN in better addressing a coordinated, comprehensive response to the interrelated issues of illicit trafficking in and abuse of drugs, crime prevention and criminal justice, international terrorism, and political corruption.
The UN agency is pursuing the goal through three primary functions, including research, guidance and support to governments in the adoption and implementation of various crime, drug, terrorism, and corruption-related conventions, treaties and protocols, as well as technical or financial assistance to governments to face their respective situations and challenges in these fields.
Justifying the UN agency’s help, the DCII official said that our laboratories have both technical and expertise limitations to segregate the cocaine mixed with the sunflower oil and this is why we have to hire a team of expert from abroad.
“We must measure the actual quantity and weight of cocaine that is necessary to seizure it as one of the illicit goods,” he noted.
When asked, he said, they will not examine other barrels of the container which also contained sunflower oil.
“The barrel which contained the cocaine mixed sunflower oil was dissimilar than others. It has made us sure that none of other barrels was containing the liquid cocaine,” he said.
According to him, one-third of the barrel was containing liquid cocaine and its weight could be more or less 60 kilogram.
The liquid cocaine was hidden in a barrel that arrived at Chittagong port on May 8 along with 106 more barrels in a container from Bolivia via Uruguay.
