In another haul of smuggled gold within a week, customs officials at Dhaka airport seized over one kilo of the precious metal from a passenger arriving from Singapore on Monday night.
Acting on a tip-off, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) officials at Shahjalal International Airport detained Mohammad Kausar Ahmed, 38, as he arrived on a Tiger Airways flightat 11:30pm on Monday.
“The CIID personnel detained Kausar at the transit lounge and took him to the customs hall. Later, they found 10 gold bars by searching his body,” CIID Director General Moinul Khan said yesterday.
Customs officials said the total weight of the seized gold was about 100tolas (1,166kg).
Kausar, from Barura in Comilla, is suspected to be a carrier hired by a gold smuggling gang. Gold smuggling through Bangladeshi airports has become rampant in recent times.
Moinul Khan said although gold is usually brought into the country from Middle Eastern nations like Dubai, smuggling from Malaysia and Singapore has also been on the rise recently.
The DG said at least 90 percent of the gold seized came from Dubai, while 7%wasfrom Malaysia and 3% from Singapore.
The customs department recovered over two kilos of gold, worth Tk1 crore,from a man arriving from Singapore on Sunday, while 101 bars, weighing 12kg, were seized on Friday and 10kg on May 13.