In a joint special drive, the Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn), National Security Intelligence (NSI) and Dhaka Customs House detained four people along with gold weighing 6.956kg at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Friday night, stretching into early Saturday.
APBn Additional Police Superintendent Mohammad Ziaul Haque told media on Saturday evening.
The detainees have been named as Md Ali Hossain, Jasim Uddin, Litu Mia and Jummon Khan.
Md Ali Hossain arrived at the airport on a US Bangla Airlines flight from Dubai at 5am on Saturday.
The three others arrived at the airport by a different flight six hours earlier, at 11pm on Friday.
During the drive, the law enforcement agencies recovered the gold in paste form, biscuits and gold ornaments, Md Ziaul Haque said, quoting the national intelligence agency, NSI.
Haque said that APBn, NSI and Customs conducted a joint operation at the airport. They challenged the passengers due to their suspicious movements at the airport.
Later, the detainees were sent to Uttara’s Holy Lab Diagnostic Center for X-rays and sure enough, gold bars were found in their rectums.
All the gold, worth around Tk7 crore at market prices, was eventually recovered from them, said the officer.
A case was filed at the airport police station.
