Police at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport seized 22 gold bars, weighing 2.5 kilograms, from a youth yesterday.
Airport sources said members of the Armed Police Battalion nabbed Md Didarul Islam, 25, of Hathajari in Chittagong, from the domestic area at 2pm immediate after he received the gold bars from a member of a gold smuggling ring.
“We believe the gold bars were brought into the capital by a domestic fight after arriving at Chittagong through a Dubai flight,” said Senior Assistant Superintendent of Armed Police Battalion Ehteshamul Huq.
He also said that acting on a tip-off, law enforcers beefed up vigilance inside the airport and arrested Didarul, who was roaming around the domestic area suspiciously.
“After a body and luggage search, we recovered 22 bars of gold, weighing around 2.5 kilograms,” he said, adding that a case will soon be filed in this regard.
In 2013, customs and APBn members seized over 600 kilograms of smuggled gold, together with foreign currencies, precious metals, stones and other valuables.
Meanwhile, customs official recovered 420 gold bars, worth Tk25 crore, from a flight in Chittagong’s Shah Amanat International Airport on Thursday night.
The gold was recovered in an abandoned state from inside a Fly Dubai flight that landed at the airport from Dubai at 8:30pm, customs official said.
