Customs Intelligence officials seized 14.5kgs of gold from the possession of two female passengers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday.
The two travelled from Chittagong to Dhaka on Biman Bangladesh Airlines’ Kuwait-Chittagong-Dhaka flight and received the gold from two international passengers on board, said customs officials.
The seizure once again shows how smugglers prefer the domestic terminal to the international one for the former’s “lax monitoring and security checking”.
“Although there are instructions from the authorities to scan passengers and all baggage, there’s always something lacking,” said a security officer at the airport, wishing anonymity.
Describing yesterday’s recovery, Moinul Khan, director general of customs intelligence, said that on information they intercepted Anwara Begum and Nahida Farzana Moni at the domestic terminal.
The officials recovered 125 pieces of gold bars, worth around Tk 7 crore, frisking them, he said.
After knowing that the gold was handed over to them by two other people inside the aircraft, the officials took them to identify the two men.
On their information, the officials detained Anwar Parvez and Osman Sohel from customs house area moments before their departure, he said, adding that the two men were frequent flyers.
Moinul said the two men smuggled the gold into the country from Kuwait while the females carried those from Chittagong to Dhaka.
The two women worked at a beauty parlour in Chittagong.
They exchanged the gold bars inside the aircraft toilet, said the DG.
“We strengthened vigilance at the domestic terminal too,” Moinul added.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines is the only airline that allows domestic passengers from Sylhet and Chittagong to fly to Dhaka on its international flights.
The domestic passengers get their exits through the domestic terminal.
With the latest seizure, customs intelligence officials seized 203kgs of gold at different airports this year.
