The Armed Police Battalion (APBn) members at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka yesterday arrested 15 Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arab with 22 gold-bars weighing around 2.5kg of gold minutes after their arrival at the airport.
Alamgir Hossain Shimul, additional superintendent of the APbn, told the Dhaka Tribune that they arrested the Saudi expatriates with 22 gold bars at 7pm while they were leaving the airport evading customs duties.
“They arrived in Dhaka by two separate flights of the Saudi Arabian Airlines and Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the gold bars were seized by searching their bodies while departing the airport”, said the APBn official.
Apart from those 15 Saudi expatriates arrested yesterday, 13 other Saudi expatriates had been arrested with 3.1kg of gold on Saturday and eight more on May 25 with 1.6kg of gold.
When asked, the APBn official said all the 36 expatriates were arrested for carrying the gold without paying the duties at the customs.
According to sources at the airport, around 40 expatriates were arrested in the last five days for smuggling of gold and carrying gold, evading customs duties.
However, mysteries shroud over how the expatriates could cross the checking by the personnel of the custom department inside the airport.
In a reply, the APBn official declined to comment on how the expatriates could be able to cross the customs checking.
Airport sources said the expatriates are used to evading the customs duties by managing the customs officials somehow.
According to sources, smuggling of gold through the airports is an open secret and it has intensified since last one year when the Indian government imposed some restrictions on the import of gold.
The sources also said around 60 rings used to smuggle in and out of gold, diamond, various precious metals and stones, currencies and other items through the airport. All the rings are aided by a section of corrupt officials and employees of different agencies at the airports.
There had been records of the seizures of 124kg and 109kg of gold in two separate hauls at the Dhaka airport.
Source: UNBConnect
