Airport Armed Police Battalion (AAPBn) arrested a coffee shop staff working at the airport and a passenger for their alleged involvement in gold smuggling at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

Five gold bars and 99 grams of gold ornaments were recovered from their possession.

Airport Armed Police Additional SP Mohammad Ziaul Haque confirmed the matter.

He said a passenger named Belayt  Molla landed in Dhaka  by a flight EK 582 this morning. 

Based on intelligence information, AAPBn was monitoring the passengers from the moment they got off the plane. At this time, instead of going to the immigration, Belayt  Molla was moving in the waiting area for the passengers of departure.

He maintained contact with Javed, the staff of the coffee shop named Eros, over phone. And he started the immigration process (on arrival) after handing over the gold bars to Javed in a bid to evade customs duty.

The AAPBn intelligence team arrested Javed, the staff of Eros coffee shop, at 12:00 pm when he was trying to leave with gold bars the customs channel.

He was interrogated by the intelligence and admitted his involvement in gold smuggling attempt and also confirmed the identity of the passenger.

Later, the passenger was also detained when he crossed the green channel of the customs. At that time, both of them admitted to trying to smuggle gold. They were searched and some 679 pieces of gold, including five gold bars and 99 gram gold ornaments, were found. The current market value of the gold is Tk 53 lakh.

Javed said that he is supposed to get Tk 5,000 for smuggling of each gold bar.
After analysing passport of the passenger Belayt  Mollah, it was found that he is a regular passenger. Evidence showed that he goes to Dubai every month. Passenger Belayt is the resident of Kalkini of Madaripur while coffee shop staff Javed is a resident of Mirpur in the capital.

A case has been registered against both of them at the Airport Police Station under the Special Powers Act.

BDST: 2145 HRS, SEP 14, 2023
MSK