Carriers held, hunt on for masterminds

All it took was a phone call from India to Bangladesh and the process of smuggling 43kg gold, worth Tk 18 crore, began.

Jahidul Islam, the person who was called, was a carrier for a gold smuggling gang. He was not acquainted with the caller, but was a trusted member of the gang, so much so that he was just handed the 258 gold bars.

The gold was received from an unknown person in Old Dhaka, after which it would be carried to Benapole, from where it would be smuggled into India. 

However, the daring attempt failed as a Rab team seized the gold and arrested Jahidul and four others from Manikganj yesterday morning, Rab said.

The arrestees are -- Jahidul, 33, his brother Aminur Rahman, 37, Yahya Amin, 42, once a Saudi expat, Moniruzzaman Rony, 35 and Jahirul Islam Tareq, 28.

Lt Col Anwar Uz Zaman, commanding officer of Rab-2, said the gold smuggling gangs use such a strategy so that the masterminds could not be traced even if the carriers, like Jahidul, were arrested.

The five arrestees were on their way to Benapole by bus. They had carefully divided the gold and wrapped the portions in a black cloth, which they tied around their waist. They then wore shirts over it to avoid detection, he told reporters at a press briefing at Rab media centre in the city.

Rab arrested them following a tip-off they got during the investigation of a case filed following the recovery of 11kgs gold from the city's Gabtoli area on August 28.

Jahidul, a native of the border district of Jashore, got involved in the illicit business one and half year ago through a neighbour who was currently in India, Rab said. 

He, along with his accomplices, would deliver two consignments weekly for Tk 10,000 to Tk 15,000 each, Rab officials said.

The Rab official, however, did not name who handed the gold to Jahidul in Old Dhaka, for the sake of investigation.

He suspected that the gold was carried from abroad and received from the airport, dodging the security forces personnel there.   

“Some jewelers might have been involved in the gold smuggling…,” said Maj Ruhul Amin, a company commander of Rab-2 who led the drive.  

Those arrested so far in different raids are mostly carriers but law enforcers are trying to arrest the mastermind, Rab officials said.