Well-organised international rackets in league with Bangladeshi influential people are involved in smuggling gold into the southeast regions but law enforcers are yet to trace the godfathers. Members of the BGB on Friday seized 635 gold bars from Sarsha Upazila of Jessore. The BGB also arrested three persons including a woman in this connection.
The smuggling syndicates are using the Benapole border and Damurhuda Upazila in Chuadanga along the Bangladesh-India border as a transit point for gold smuggling with help from locals and corrupt law enforcement officials, said several sources.
The authorities concerned have seized 1.2 tonnes of gold from Bangladeshi airports over the last five years - an unprecedented haul. Gold smuggling in Bangladesh is at a record high, officials say, with the country emerging as a major route into neighbouring India, which has slapped high taxes on gold imports. Bangladesh is increasingly being targeted as a trading route for gold by Middle East-based smugglers due to the corruption of its public officials and the proximity of the country to India, the world's largest market for the precious metal, detectives say.
Detectives say the 15 gold smuggling groups are reportedly operating in Bangladesh by using low-level carriers to import the gold from abroad. Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) and metropolitan police detectives say the majority of the gold is smuggled from Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Influential people, businessmen and a number of corrupt officials working for the airports and in law enforcement agencies are in cahoots with the smugglers. Sources say some of these dishonest officials are caught from time to time when they become embroiled in internal feuds over sharing money from the illegal trade.
Lt Col Ariful Haque, Commanding Officer of the BGB-49, said the BHB members arrested Md Mohiuddin, 35, from Sikarpur village of Sarsha Upazila near Narkelbaria frontier with 624 gold bars weighing 72.759 kilogrammes. The estimated price of the recovered gold is around Tk 35.77 crore. The BGB official said it was the biggest gold smuggling attempt at Jessore border so far.
The BGB team arrested two persons including a woman and seized 11 gold bars weighing two kilogrammes from their possession in another raid. The arrestees are Safura Khatun, 52, of Daulatpur village and Md Israfil of Bhaberber village. The price of the gold bars was estimated at Tk 96 lakh. Bangladesh -- a low-lying nation on the Bay of Bengal -- does not have any gold mines of its own and relies on imports to fashion rings and other treasures for its booming middle class.
Despite heightened vigilance plenty of gold is finding its way into the black market, officials told The Daily Observer on Friday. The country has imposed strict quotas and huge customs duties on gold, effectively choking off legal bullion imports for flourishing jewellery outlets. Huge taxes on gold imports into India have fuelled a smuggling industry at the leaky border, source said.
"This is a dangerous, powerful and politically-backed gold mafia. They don't leave any evidence, and play with blood money," source said. The source added that gold smuggling also remains a lucrative business in the country as the demand for gold in India never dips.
