The recent confiscation of smuggled gold from Dhaka’s main railway station, in addition to near daily seizures of gold from the country’s international airports, suggest Bangladesh’s integration into an international gold smuggling network, police said.
The latest gold seizure at Dhaka airport yesterday resulted in the detention of Shah Alam, 35, and the recovery of 700 grams of the precious metal hidden in his luggage trolley. A day earlier, 5.75 kilogrammes of gold was recovered from Dhaka airport and Kamalapur Railway Station.
Law enforcement intelligence officials said Bangladesh was being used as a transit route for gold intended for the Indian market after that country increased taxes on gold imports. The Indian market’s demand for gold is legendary. Sources said most gold brought illegally into Bangladesh was on its way to India, where it was smuggled in by road and railway.
Law enforcers have so far been unsuccessful in putting down the smuggling of the precious metal. Sources allege that law enforcers only manage to recover a fraction of the smuggled gold, while most of the illegal trade successfully evades observation.
Customs and police sources said most of those arrested in gold smuggling cases last year were now out of jail on bail. The masterminds and influential people behind the illicit trade have not been clearly identified, they said.
Intelligence agencies report that smugglers, many of whom are Bangladeshi and Indian nationals, were working in cooperation with gold smugglers in a number of other countries.
Sources said seven international gold smuggling groups were active in Bangladesh. Local smugglers of various sizes are reported to be working with the smuggling racket. At present, Al Razzak, Rashid and Hamza of Dubai, “ND” of Singapore and Samir, Jamil Ahmed and Ashif were allegedly leading smuggling operations on the Bangladesh-India transit route.
The Dhaka Tribune managed to speak with a smuggler who has links with the illicit gold trade. The smuggler, who preferred to remain anonymous, said a few days ago that Bangladeshis were delivering smuggled gold to the border with India for a commission paid for each gold bar.
Several months ago, Indian nationals started working the route directly in order to cash in on the lucrative trans-Bangladesh trade, the smuggler said.
The veracity of his statement was borne out by the fact that 20 Indian citizens carrying gold bars had recently been arrested by police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh.
Customs department records showed a total of 610 kilogrammes of gold recovered between July last year and the present month, worth about Tk277 crore.
In this connection, 89 cases were filed with police stations and 86 people shown arrested.
Records showed that most of the smugglers arrested in the past year were freed on bail although these cases are not bailable, because they are under Sections 25 B (1) B and 26 (1) of the Special Powers Act, 1974.
Mahfuzul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of the Detective Branch (DB) of police, told the Dhaka Tribune that almost all of the accused arrested in gold smuggling cases last year were now out on bail.
Intelligence officials said Nasir, Golden Monir, Nizam, Dipok Kumar, Md Habib, Abul Kashem, Abdur Rauf, Rabbani, Mizanur Rahman, Delowar, Asadullah, Atikul Islam, Monowar, Razesh, Kamal Uddin, Kamrul Hassan, Abu Jafor, Hossain Askar Labu, Saiful, Mazid, Ariful Islam, Selim, Liton, Jashim, Rafiq and others were regularly involved in gold smuggling in Bangladesh.
Fifteen years ago, there were 14 top gold smugglers in the country, of whom at least three were now politicians belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Awami League and the Jatiya Party, intelligence officials of law enforcement agencies said. There are a minimum of 50 influential people in the country connected to the smuggling racket, they said.
Airport authorities said at least 150 officials and staff at Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet airports belonging to the civil aviation administration, the customs service and Biman, were working to put an end to gold smuggling.
Mainul Khan, director of customs intelligence, told the Dhaka Tribune that Bangladesh is being used as major transit hub for gold smuggling as Indian demand continues to rise.
