The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) detained a woman with 8.3 kilograms of solid cocaine, the largest consignment in the country's history, at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital on Wednesday night.
The detainee is an African woman named Nomthendajo Tawera Soko, 35. She is a nurse by profession.
Director (Operations) of DNC Tanvir Momtaz told this to media at a press briefing at the DNC's Tejgaon office in the capital on Thursday.
The official said the they had information that a consignment of cocaine would arrive in Dhaka via an African national on a Qatar Airways flight. Since then, they have increased surveillance at the airport.
A team of Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and DNC took position at the boarding bridge area of the airport on Wednesday. They followed all foreign passengers who disembarked from flights.
Among the passengers, they noticed Soko was standing at the visa-on-arrival desk on the ground floor of the airport for long. The team stopped Soko for her suspicious behavior. Later, they seized 8.3 kilograms of solid cocaine from her luggage.
During primary interrogation, she admitted that she was carrying cocaine. She informed the team that she came to Bangladesh in 2023 on some garments-related business and this time was also carrying an invitation letter from a owner of garments .
The detainee said that she first went to Ethiopia from Malawi. Later, she moved from Ethiopia to Doha. She then arrived in Dhaka on a Qatar Airlines flight from Doha.
She was scheduled to leave for Malawi on February 4.
The DNC director said as there is no such demand of cocaine in the country, Bangladesh was being used as a transit route for the international cocaine smuggling syndicate.
Tanvir Momtaz said they suspected that Soko might have collected this shipment of cocaine from either Malawi or Ethiopia and the drug would be handed over to other foreigners in Bangladesh for further distribution.
Responding to question, the official informed that domestic and foreign syndicates were involved in the shipment of cocaine. "We are trying to identify the racket."
The market value of the cocaine is worth about Tk100 crore, which is the biggest shipment of solid cocaine in the history of the country, DNC officials said
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