The National Board of Revenue is working on introduction of dog squad unit at major airports and in customs houses for better detection of smuggled contraband items, officials said.
The customs wing under NBR will use the detective dog squads, specially trained in detection of contraband drugs, gold, and narcotics, to check illegal entry of smuggled goods inside the country.
The authorities had to take up the initiative in the wake of increased number of entry of smuggled goods mainly through the major airports including Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka and also through seaports, officials said.
“Dhaka airport is considered vulnerable for smuggling of drugs and gold for a long time. The customs authorities already seized a large number of goods through intensive drive. Now the dog units will be deployed there as part of a multilayer security arrangement to counter smuggling,” said an NBR official.
It was learnt that Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has become a hub for smuggling and illegal trading of frequent items like precious metals such as gold and diamonds, foreign currencies, drugs and other illegal items.
Once introduced, the new unit can help counter entry of smuggling of narcotics, firearms, contraband medicine and other items, officials said, adding that it will also help release of goods in timely manner.
The unit will mainly operate drives in the cargo unit of the airport.
Bangladesh Customs has already formed a committee, headed by the Custom Intelligence and Investigation Directorate Director General, Moinul Khan, for detective dog squad inclusion in customs.
Many countries in Europe and Asia have dog squads in their customs wings for prevention of narcotics and other contraband items. In Bangladesh, law enforcement agencies including police and RAB have dog squads that are being used in prevention of crimes.
On August 26, the Dhaka Customs House has operated a drive by dog squads from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in a number of areas including freight and courier unit, warehouse-1 and 2, DGR godown, and in chemical godown.
“We are planning to introduce scanning machines and dog squad unit to reduce human intervention for proper scanning of illegal goods,” Dhaka Customs House Commissioner Lutfor Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.
The dog squad of RAB can help us detect particularly narcotics, as they are able to detect a bottle having alcoholic instances and drug-like substances during the drive, he added.
“We have proposed to introduce the mechanism for monitoring of airport, cargo section and the passengers,” the official said.
The customs authority will also propose NBR to introduce vehicle scanner machine in the airport and customs houses, he added.
