Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested five suspected members of an international drug gang in Dhaka's Kawla area for their involvement in the biggest drug haul in Sri Lanka's history in December 2018.
The suspected gang members were detained on Monday from Kawla, near the airport said RAB.
Fatema Imam Tania, 26; Afsana Mimi, 23; Salma Sultana, 26; Shekh Mohammad Badhon alias Parvez, 28; and Ruhul Amin alias Saymon, 29; were arrested around 11:30pm on Monday. At that time, 1,970 yaba pills, various foreign currencies and passports were recovered from them.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan said they were part of a power international syndicate trafficking heroin and cocaine in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Police on December 31, last year seized 272 kilograms of heroin and five kilograms of cocaine during a special operation at a housing complex in Templer’s Road at Colombo’s Mount Lavinia. The haul is worth $18.1 million
Two Bangladeshis caught in the operation were Mohammed Jamaluddin of Bogra and Rafiul Islam of Joypurhat. The two had arrived in Sri Lanka on Dec 23, according to Sri Lankan police.
Meanwhile the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) also started their shadow investigation and arrested five including three women suspected members who were arrested on Monday.
RAB’s Mufti Mahmud Khan said: “The group was run by two people, Arif Uddin of Al Amin Fashion Buying house and Rehana.”
Arif Uddin is currently on the run.
He said: “The other leader Rehana, was detained in China. Four of the detainees came to this line of drug trade through her and Ruhul Amin.”
Mufti Mahmud Khan said the detained members of the gang would travel out of the country and smuggled the drugs back through their checked-in baggage.
He also said Shurjomoni who was arrested in Sri Lanka was found in a house that was rented in Afsana’s name.
The house was used as a warehouse for drugs to be supplied to other countries packaged in cookie and cake containers.
Afsana had first travelled to Malaysia with Arif in 2017 and went to Sri Lanka from there. Arif was the one who introduced her to Shurjomoni there. She travelled back to Sri Lanka in 2018.
On Dec 15, Surjamoni was arrested with a cake box of heroin. A police search in the building she rented, led to the discovery of 31 kilograms of heroin in Colombo, reports the Daily Mirror.
On Dec 14, Mohammed Jamaluddin and Rafiul Islam were arrested in Nugegoda, a suburb in Colombo, with one kilogram of heroin hidden in a cake box, Superintendent of Police Gunasekara said.
The hauls caused a sensation and led to the New Year's Eve raid at Mount Lavinia, conducted jointly by Sri Lanka’s Police Narcotic Bureau and the Special Task Force.
During the raid, packets, containers and luggage items filled with heroin were found everywhere in the house, said SP Gunasekara.
“The safe-house had been used to weigh and repack expired drugs … we believe the drugs were transported by sea and air."
RAB on Tuesday said Tania who dropped out of school in the ninth grade, met Rehana through their mutual friends Farhana and Ruhul Amin during coaching at the Open University at Tajmahal Road of Dhaka in 2016.
They said Tania was already in the drug trade when they met. In 2016, she had travelled to Malaysia with Rehana for 10 days and from there had gone to Sri Lanka for 3-4 day-long trip.
After she met Arif in 2017, Tania has already visited India twice, China thrice and Malaysia and Sri Lanka 8-10 times, RAB’s Mufti added.
He said Afsana was a DJ and met Symon through work. Salma started an event management firm in 2010. This is when she met with Rehana through Tania.
Mufti said, another arrestee Saymon works at a private TV channel. He used to entice girls by convincing them of a life of easy money and glamor.
Parvez, RAB said involved in the collection, packaging and supply of narcotics met Arif through work. He has spent months at a time in Sri Lanka.
