The Customs officials have held nine people along with 4kg gold from Hajarat Shahjalal International Airport in two seperate drives on Friday morning and Thursday night.
The Customs Department officials arrested one Arif Hossain, 29, with 3kg gold immediately after he arrived at Dhaka on a flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia around 8:00am.
Shamsul Arefin, assistant commissioner of the customs at the airport, said: “Arif was arrested along with the gold worth Tk1.5 crore, while he was crossing the green channel and the gold was found by searching his body.”
On the other hand, the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) members held eight expatriates with 1100 grams of gold after their arrival at Dhaka from Riyadh on a flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Thursday night.
The detainees are Mokhlesur Rahman, Md Sharif, Amirul HUq, Humayun Akbar, Nurul Alam, Delwar Hossain, Mainuddin and Abdul Kader.
Alamgir Hossain Shimul, Additional Superintendent of the APBn, said those persons were held for evading taxes and duties for the gold.
Smuggling of gold has been intensified centring the airports in Bangladesh since the Indian government imposed some bars on the import of gold last year.
Sources said around 60 rings used to smuggle in and out of gold, diamond, various precious metals and stones, currencies and other items through the airport.
There had been the record of the seizures of 124 kg and 109 kg of gold in two separate hauls at the Dhaka airport.
