On June 8, the Narcotics Control Department failed to trace cocaine inside drums full of imported sunflower oil, but the customs intelligence never gave up. And their anticipation turned out to be correct.
Based on their findings, a UK intelligence agency confirmed the presence of cocaine in the sunflower oil consignment, said an official of police’s Special Branch (SB).
On June 27, after conducting two lab tests, the customs intelligence announced there was presence of cocaine.
Investigators have also found the link of a Bangladesh-origin UK citizen, Bakul, in the smuggling of the illegal drug from Uruguay.
The consignment was on its way to Europe or North America, otherwise, it was supposed to be re-exported to India’s Kolkata, from where the smugglers had plans to send it back to Uruguay again, detectives say.
Bakul’s involvement was unearthed following the detention of his relatives Mostafa Kamal and Atiqul Rahman Khan yesterday. Mostafa works at a real estate company and Atiq is a manager-level official at export-import firm Mondol Group.
On June 8, a day after the haul at Chittagong Port, Additional Inspector General of Police Javed Patwary said a foreign intelligence agency had confirmed that there was cocaine in the container carrying around 2,100kg sunflower oil.
Meanwhile, a team of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will come to Dhaka soon to determine the actual weight of the cocaine by separating it from the oil.
Since the relevant facilities are not available in Bangladesh, the customs authorities sought UNODC’s assistance through the National Board of Revenue yesterday.
Dr Mainul Khan, chief of the Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (CIID), told reporters that they have not been able to seize the consignment until the exact amount of the contraband drug was determined.
After being tipped-off by the UK agency, a high official of police’s Special Branch (SB) ordered field-level officials to investigate the matter although the narcotics department had failed in its attempts.
The official also asked the SB team to check whether anyone had cleared the consignment at the port.
Upon confirmation, the SB top official informed the customs intelligence about the matter, following which the authorities sent samples of the oil to the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and the Drug Testing Laboratory.
At a press briefing yesterday, Dr Mainul said the CIID had retested the container as they had information about a similar haul in Canada where 310kg cocaine had been seized from containers only a few days ago. That consignment was sent from Bolivia.
The cocaine in question was also sent from Bolivia, although the consignment papers say that the ship had come from Uruguay, he added.
Asked why the cocaine could not be identified in the first test, the CIID chief said that the narcotics department might had some limitations.
Earlier in the day, the customs authorities detained two people from Dhaka’s Uttara and Gulshan areas in separate drives.
A team led by Additional Director General (Chittagong) Hossain Ahmed picked up Atiq from his office of Mondol Group in Uttara around 10:15am. Mostafa was detained based on information given by Atiq.
The CIID learned about the smuggling ring from a port employee named Jamal, who was trying to help Atiq and Mostafa to re-export the consignment to Kolkata.
Later in the day, the CIID team detained AKM Azad, manager of Cosco Shipping Agency .
The three detainees were interrogated at the CIID headquarters at Dhaka’s Segunbagicha. They would later be handed over to the Detective Branch (DB) of police in Chittagong who are dealing with the case filed over the haul.
Police on Sunday lodged a case against Khan Jahan Ali Group Chairman Nur Mohammad for his company’s connection with the alleged import of liquid cocaine.
A special DB team detained Nur on June 7. During interrogation, Nur said his employee Golam Mostafa Sohel had brought the consignment using the company’s pad and address.
Nur was later freed but detectives produced Sohel before the court of Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Farid Alam yesterday seeking remand. The court granted the police five days to grill the suspect.
On Monday, the CIID formed a four-member committee, led by Additional DG (Chittagong) Hossain Ahmed to look into the matter. The other members are Deputy Director Zakir Hossain, Assistant Director Omar Faruk and Assistant Revenue Officer Aminur Rahman.
Primarily, police and customs intelligence suspect that the smugglers attempted to re-export the consignment to Europe or North America using the Chittagong Port as a transit point.
‘Bakul is the ring leader’
CIID chief Dr Mainul said they suspect that Bakul is the leader of the cocaine smuggling ring.
After the container got stuck at the port, Bakul had brought in his cousin Mostafa to ensure safe passage of the consignment while Mostafa contacted Atiq.
Investigators have learned that another person, Indian citizen Razu, was supposed to come to Bangladesh to receive the containers and send it to Kolkata, the DG said.
From Sohel, the customs investigators learned about the involvement of his relative Fazlur, a Bangladesh national living in the UK. The CIID officials suspect that Bakul and Fazlur may have connections.
The smugglers were trying to get the consignment cleared from the port although no L/C had been opened by the importer.
Asked if they are being pressured against conducting the investigation, Dr Mainul said: “We will not bow down to any pressure, which however is not unusual in such cases.”