Officials recovered 566 grams of gold worth Tk98.30 lakh, including duties and taxes, from a passenger arriving from Abu Dhabi on a US-Bangla Airlines flight.
TBS Report
19 October, 2026, 12:35 pm
Last modified: 19 October, 2026, 01:03 pm
Customs intelligence officials seized gold and gold-paste objects worth an estimated Tk5 crore in separate operations at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka and Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram yesterday (18 October).
In Chattogram, officials recovered 566 grams of gold worth Tk98.30 lakh, including duties and taxes, from a passenger arriving from Abu Dhabi on a US-Bangla Airlines flight.
According to a press release issued by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), the passenger, Kamrul Islam, arrived at Shah Amanat International Airport on flight BS350 at around 7am.
Acting on a tip-off, customs intelligence officials positioned themselves at the green channel ahead of his arrival. Although he declared 100 grams of gold jewellery, he denied carrying any additional gold.
A subsequent search of his baggage, conducted in the presence of representatives from other agencies, uncovered four broken gold bars weighing 466 grams concealed inside a frying pan and a vegetable grater.
Later that evening, officials recovered six egg-shaped gold-paste objects from the rectums of two passengers arriving at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from the Maldives on US-Bangla Airlines flight BS338 at around 6:15pm.
The passengers, Mohammed Solaiman and Jobayed Ahmad, were carrying three objects each. The items had a combined preliminary weight of 2.734kg and an estimated value of nearly Tk4 crore.
The actual quantity and value of pure gold are yet to be determined. The objects will be kept intact to preserve the integrity of the evidence before appropriate testing, the CIID said.
The two seizures involved gold concealed in kitchen utensils and gold-paste objects hidden inside passengers' bodies.
The CIID said it would continue intelligence-led operations, close surveillance and risk-based passenger screening to prevent gold smuggling.