A team of customs officials, in separate incidents, seized around 42 kilograms of gold worth Tk 21 crore and arrested four persons in this connection at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the capital on Sunday.
The detained persons have been identified as Mohammad Ali, 30, Sharif, 28, Amirul Islam, 35, and Iqbal Hossain, 27, customs officials said.
Of them, Sharif and Ali were arrested along with 270 gold bars weighing about 32 kg while Iqbal was held with 5.83 kg gold and Amirul with 4.3 kg gold.
Ishrat Jahan Ruma, Assistant Commissioner (Customs) said they had information that a large quantity of gold consignment was coming by a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Bangkok. Based on that information the customs officials detained Sharif and Ali, while they were getting down from the flight of the national flag carrier that landed at the airport at about 2:55 pm, she said.
Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Umme Nahida Akther of Customs Intelligence said Iqbal landed at the airport by a flight of Qatar Airlines from Dubai around 2:30 am.
When he was crossing the Green Channel, customs officials challenged him and recovered 50 gold bars weighing 5.83 kgs from his possession. The present market value of the seized gold is Tk 2.91 crore, she said.
In another incident, customs officials arrested Amirul Islam along with 4.3 kgs of gold at Customs Lounge of the airport.
He landed at the airport by a flight of Malaysian Airlines from Kuala Lumpur around 1:00 am.
Besides, officials of customs intelligence seized 294 cartons of illegal foreign cigarettes from an abandoned luggage at the airport. None was arrested in this connection.
Meanwhile, Moinul Khan, Director General of Customs Intelligence and Investment Directorate (CIID) said that the arrested four arrested persons are now being interrogated.
