Customs Intelligence has arrested three people in Dhaka for their suspected involvement in the smuggling of liquid cocaine concealed in a container in Chittagong port.
Detectives nabbed AKM Azad, Manager of Corporate Sales and Marketing at COSCO Bangladesh Shipping Lines Ltd, on Tuesday evening, hours after two others were picked from different areas of the capital.
Officials said he was ‘involved in re-exporting that container’ which had the barrels of edible oil where traces of liquid cocaine were found.
The first two were picked up by investigators who came in from Chittagong, Customs Intelligence and Investigation’s Director General Mainul Khan said at a press briefing at their Segunbagicha headquarters in the afternoon.
A team had picked up Md Atiqur Rahman from the office of Mondol Group in Uttara around 9am. Later, Mostofa Kamal was apprehended after being called out to Gulshan by telephone.
Rahman is a commercial executive who oversees import and export operations of Mondol Group.
Mainul Khan added that some legal procedures were pending and they would be handing the arrestees over to police after further questioning.
“We have repeatedly said the cocaine was not intended for Bangladesh and was to be re-exported to a third country.”
He added a UK-based Bangladeshi named Bakul Mia was the ringleader and the key person behind the import.
His cousin Kamal was entrusted with the job of ensuring that the container got past the port inspection.
Kamal took Rahman’s help to utilise his experience on the matter.
However, the investigations chief could not divulge how the duo was supposed to share the profits between themselves.
Khan clarified that none of the two worked for Khan Jahan Ali Limited, the company that imported the containers of sunflower oil from Uruguay.
An Indian citizen named ‘Raju’ is also linked to the group and was supposed to arrive in Bangladesh the day the containers were seized.
They initially wanted to unload the containers, but after finding out that they did not have appropriate papers, they tried to re-export it to Kolkata or send them back to Uruguay.
He said even though the containers came in via Uruguay, the cocaine was loaded in Bolivia.
Khan hoped they would get the ringleader based on the information extracted from the two.
The customs investigations wing chief trashed rumours of another person named ‘Fazlur’ being involved.
“They were linked to Bakul. Bakul hailed from Moulvibazar. They do not know any Fazlur.”
He further said the four-member committee, formed to look into the matter, conducted the drives in Chittagong and Dhaka, and seized computers and documents before the breakthrough.
The department’s Additional Director General for Chittagong Hossain Ahmed headed the probe panel that included Deputy Director Zakir Hossain, Assistant Director Omar Faruk and Assistant Revenue Officer Aminur Rahman.
Bandar Police Station OC AKM Mohiuddin Selim told bdnews24.com Sub-inspector Osman Gani had filed the case under Narcotics Control Act on Sunday, naming two persons.
The accused are Chairman of Khan Jahan Ali Ltd Nur Mohammad and its employee ‘Sohel.’ The latter was arrested after the seizure of the drug.
Existence of liquid cocaine was found in barrels of edible oil, seized from a container at the port, after their contents were retested in two laboratories in Dhaka — the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and Bangladesh Drug Testing Laboratory (BDTL).
Police said they had shown Sohel arrested in the case and appealed to the court for a five-day remand to interrogate him.
Mohammad claimed that Sohel was involved in the ‘import of oil’ that was brought in without his knowledge.
CII Director General Mainul Khan told bdnews24.com on Saturday he suspected a third of the 185 kg drum of sunflower oil was liquid cocaine.
The container was imported from Bolivia by Khan Jahan Ali Limited of Chittagong’s Khatunganj.
As per the import documents, the consignment was that of sunflower oil. The CII sealed the container at the NCT yard of Chittagong port on June 7 based on an intelligence report.
The physical test of the contents was done the following day in presence of senior officials of Detective Branch (DB) of police, customs intelligence, Department of Narcotics Control, Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Bangladesh Navy.
Initial tests had found no trace of cocaine in the 107 drums in the container.
On that day, Additional Inspector General of Police Javed Patwary said a foreign intelligence agency had confirmed them that there was indeed cocaine in the container.
Source: Bd news24
