320 gold bars worth USD 2 mln seized at Bangladesh airport

In one of the biggest hauls of smuggled gold in Bangladesh, customs officials today seized 320 gold bars worth nearly USD 2 million from a plane here after cabin crew raised a bomb alert over unclaimed packets.
The gold bars weighing 320 kilogrammes were seized from a Qatar Airways flight that had landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport early in the morning.
This was one of the biggest seizure of the illegally smuggled precious metal in Bangladesh in recent months, Madhab Biswas Debroy, Customs Assistant Commissioner, was quoted as saying by B D News.
The gold bars were found under two seats of the plane.

"They were neatly packed in cloth with black tapes", Debroy said.
The gold bars seized were worth about 150 million Takas (about USD 2 million).

A Sri Lankan cabin crew informed authorities suspecting the packets to be a bomb, said Alamgir Hossain, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Armed Police Battalion (APBn).
No arrests have been made so far in connection with the seizures, he said.
Several such hauls have been made in both Dhaka and Chittagong airports in recent months.
On November 2, a total of 41 gold bars were seized from the two airports within a span of two hours. Then again, on October 29-30, 164 bars weighing 20 kilogrammes were seized.

Nearly 30 kilogrammes of gold was found in the toilet of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Dubai on October 22.
On October 1, 14 gold bars were seized from a Doha flight that landed at Chittagong's Shah Amanat Airport.
Rising gold price in Bangladesh has led to smuggling attempts from other countries, particularly from the Middle Eastern countries.