Dhaka airport's Customs officials yesterday seized 1,000 blank ATM cards imported from Hong Kong and collected by an unidentified person who could not be arrested.
Detectives said that they would investigate whether those cards were imported by the ATM forgery gang busted recently.
Customs Intelligence Joint Director Shafiur Rahman said that their officials were monitoring a person who had left the DHL counter in the airport with a bag around 11am. As they challenged him, the man fled the scene leaving the bag.
“Searching the bag, we found 1,000 ATM cards in small boxes and some other items – umbrella, caps, small motor parts, books and pens. But there was no supporting legal documents for the consignment,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
The consignment was sent from Hong Kong through DHL by a Thai Airways flight, the official added.
Another Customs official told the Dhaka Tribune that they would talk to the DHL officials to identify the receiver.
Such cards can only be imported by banks and financial institutions upon approval of the Bangladesh Bank, officials said.
Monirul Islam, who heads the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit, said that the cards might have been imported by any ATM forgery gang.
The law enforcers recently arrested German national Piotr Szczepan Mazurek alias Thomas Peter and three local bank employees for stealing information of credit and debit cards by installing skimming devices at ATM booths, shops and banks for the last one year, and withdrawing crores of taka by making clone cards. They are now on police remand.
Detectives suspect that the gang having some 50 members have collected information of around 4,000-5,000 cards. The gang members include bankers, police officers and businessmen.
Peter's two associates – former Ukrainian policeman Andy and Romanian citizen Romeo – already left the country with no less than $27,000 with them, police said, adding that a UK-based Bangladeshi expatriate, Farid Nabir, had masterminded and coordinated the forgery.