The officials of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) detained a passenger with 10 gold bars weighting some 1kg at Hajarat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday night.
The detainee is Mohammad Kausar Ahmed, 38, of Barura in Comilla.
CIID Director General Moinul Khan said Tiger Airways flight passenger Kauser was detained with the smuggled gold around 11:30pm, immediate after his arrival at Dhaka.
He said: “Acting on a tip-off, CIID personnel detained Kausar at the Transit Lounge. The gold bars were recovered after searching his body at the Customs Hall.”
Customs officials said each of the 10 bars was weighting to around 10 tolas of gold and the detainee was suspected to be hired by a smuggling gang as a gold carrier.
Answering to a query, Moinul Khan said: “Although gold is usually smuggled into Bangladesh from Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore, recently the gold is being smuggled into the country from Singapore compared to the other countries.”
He, however, said at least 90% of the smuggled gold seized at the airports was smuggled into Bangladesh from Dubai, while 7% was from Malaysia and the rest 3% from Singapore.
On Sunday night, the Customs Department personnel seized smuggled gold weighting to over 2kg worth around Tk1 crore and arrested a youth immediate after his arrival at Dhaka on a flight of Tiger Airways from Singapore.