DHAKA: Bangladesh Customs arrests five people, including three top Biman officials, the detectives have concluded that a gang, comprising people in and outside the airline, has been involved with gold smuggling through the Dhaka airport for quite some time now.
One of the arrested, Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, is the chief of flight planning and scheduling and also the pilot of an aircraft. Tozammel Hossain and Emdad Hossain are deputy general manager and manager of flight scheduling respectively.
This is the first time that any top officials of the national flag carrier have been arrested in connection with gold smuggling. The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested them at different parts of the capital.
Over the last couple of years, detectives and customs officials have been regularly catching gold mules from the Dhaka and Chittagong airports, but the frequency and volume have increased alarmingly this year.
In the past, smuggled gold has been seized from passengers’ bodies, hidden in their luggage, strapped under seats, abandoned at restrooms inside the aircraft or at the airports.
Intelligence officials were aware that such nature and amount of smuggling could not have been taking place without the involvement of some bigwigs from the Biman’s ground handling staff.
The sources also say the smuggling racket is actually international in scope because it includes officials and individuals from several cities in the gulf including Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
According to sources, Mahmudul Haque Palash, the listed Biman contractor, is the local coordinator of the smuggling racket.
He is a former official of the national flag carrier who continued maintaining his ties with Biman as a contractor. He has also worked for the Bangladesh Air Force.
In fact, it was the arrest of and the confessional statement given by one such cabin crew named Mazharul Afsar Rassel on November 12 that has led to yesterday’s arrests of the Biman big shots.
“Rassel confessed that these officials and some others were involved with the gang. They [the officials] were arrested from the airport, Uttara and Basundhara areas in the capital. We have also got the names of some other high-ranked officials,” DMP Joint Commissioner and DB chief Monirul Islam said at a press briefing yesterday.
The officials arrested were all shown arrested in the 2.6kg gold haul case.
“The ‘negotiated money’ was then transferred through Harun’s money exchange firm Farhan Money Exchange,” said the DB boss.
“Biman flight captains, along with other officials concerned, were put in charge of making sure that the gold passed through the airport customs without hassle. For safe passage, the DGM and captain chose flight crew, attendants and other staffs. All of them were given separate assignments.
“In this particular case, the arrested officials are directly involved. Some other officials were also involved,” Monir explained.
The detectives have so far made a list of over 50 officials and crew members who are involved with the smuggling.
Meanwhile, the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Erfan Ullah awarded DB four days’ remand for each of the five people arrested yesterday.
According to sources, a total of 56 cases have been filed in connection with gold smuggling only this year, although the number of actual incidents is said to be a lot higher.
