The Department of Narcotics Control, or DNC, has arrested a 40-year-old Indian national named Abhijit Das with 4.28kg of kush, a cannabis-based drug, allegedly concealed under clothes at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport.
He was detained at the Green Channel in the ground-floor arrivals hall on Wednesday afternoon, the DNC said in a statement on Wednesday night.
Abhijit Das is from North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, India.
Acting on a tip-off, a special team led by Md Abu Sayeed Mia, assistant director of the DNC’s Dhaka Metro North Shahjalal Airport office, took position at the Green Channel around 1pm, according to the agency.
The team suspected Das of carrying drugs and detained him after he arrived on Thai Airways flight TG-321 from Bangkok.
His trolley bag was searched in the presence of witnesses and representatives of different agencies working at the airport. The team found the Kush concealed beneath three Indian sarees, the DNC said.
Officials also seized an Indian passport, 2,160 Indian rupees, 70 Thai baht, a smartphone and a boarding pass from him.
Citing Abhijit’s initial interrogation, the DNC said he worked as a porter at Bongaon Railway Station in India.
An international drug trafficking ring operating across three countries allegedly takes low-income Indians from Kolkata to Bangkok, taking advantage of “visa-free” travel facilities, according to the DNC.
The syndicate then uses them to smuggle large quantities of drugs into Bangladesh by concealing the contraband in sarees and other goods.
The DNC said the group had been attempting to create a new market in Bangladesh for Kush, a relatively uncommon cannabis-based drug.
Abhijit had allegedly planned to stay in Bangladesh for two to three days, hand over the drug consignment and then return to India through the Benapole land port.
Shahriya Sharmin, an inspector at the DNC’s airport circle, has filed a case under the Narcotics Control Act at Airport Police Station over the incident.
Police are preparing to produce Abhijit before a court.
Earlier on Aug 22, another Indian national was detained with 3kg of Kush at Shahjalal Airport.