Law enforcement agencies do not have the requisite resources to stop trafficking. Agencies concede that they are chronically short of resources to deal with the situation. International syndicates of gold smugglers have increased their activities especially in North Bengal.
Gold smuggling still continues despite crackdown by law enforcers and Customs officials at airports and land ports. Customs officers seized 40 gold bars worth around Tk 2 crore from a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines at Osmani International Airport in Sylhet Thursday morning.
Our local correspondent reports quoting Ahsan Ullah, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, the gold bars weighing 4.6kg were found underneath a seat of an incoming flight from Abu Dhabi. One Jahid, 32, of Mollah Para of Sylhet city was detained in this connection.
The bulk of the smuggled gold enters India, the world's largest consumer of gold. Indians love gold and often hoard it as life's savings.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained five members of an international gold smuggling ring with 11kg of gold in Gabtali on August 29. The detainees were identified as Rezaul, 35, Md Oliyer, 50, Oliyer Rahman, 30, Ohidul Islam, 34, and Md Billal Hossain, 35.
During the raid, the RAB arrested the smugglers and confiscated 96 gold bars
which were hidden in their shoes. The total weight of the gold was 11.136kg, and it is estimated to be worth Tk 4.5 crore.
RAB apprehended them during routine patrols on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway on September 3. RAB arrested the six suspected smugglers with gold worth Tk 6 crore.
Sources said smugglers carrying gold in sensitive parts of the body are specially trained for the purpose. They can easily hide few kilograms of gold in their rectum, intestine and vagina.
Body concealment is regarded as the safest form of smuggling, despite being very risky and painful for the carriers, Customs officials said.
On January 23 Customs officials arrested an Indian national in possession of 6kg of gold from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. The gold was being carried in a water dispenser. Small balls of gold were hidden in the dispenser's compressor.
Earlier on January 13, law enforcers arrested a Japanese national with 11 gold bars, each weighing about 1kg from Hazrat Shahjalal Airport in the capital.
Customs Intelligence Investigation Directorate (CIID) officials seized around 1,717.20 kilograms of gold from Shahjalal Airport in Dhaka and Hazrat Shah Amanat Airport in Chittagong over the last 4 and a half years from July 2013 to January 2018.
The value of the seized gold is worth about Tk 1,000 crore while 200 smugglers were arrested for smuggling, according to the CIID.
CIID sources said only 17.4 kg of gold worth Tk 5.53 crore was seized in nine years from 2004 to 2012 from the airports. Gold smuggling through Bangladeshi airports has marked sharp rise from 2013 after the rise in import duty on gold in India.
According to intelligence sources, international gold smugglers are using Bangladesh as a safe route due to its geographical location and weakness in anti-smuggling vigilance. Gold is smuggled in Bangladesh from Singapore, Malaysia and different countries of the Middle East including UAE and Qatar through airports and land ports.
Sources said the volume of smuggled gold is more than that seized by the law enforcers or Customs officials.
According to gold smugglers, most of the gold consignments pass through the airport without any problem. Customs and law enforcers often seize smuggled gold and arrest the carriers of the illicit gold, but the masterminds remain behind the scene.
Sources said the gold smugglers are arrested on the basis of strong evidence. But the evidence is mostly tampered, enabling the smugglers to evade punishment and continue their illegal trade.
In June of 2013, a higher duty (tax) on gold jewelry was introduced. Over the whole year, duty hikes occurred three times, eventually amounting to a 15 per cent rise. The government was attempting to curb the high demand for gold and improve a record high current account deficit, which arises when imports outweigh exports. Smuggling is a way to illegally avoid these taxes, according to an Indian newspaper.
