Restaurant worker in guise of expat dopes 300 foreign returnees in 15 yrs: Rab

Amir Hossain had been working at a fast-food restaurant near the Dhaka airport but he was often seen at the airport premises with a passport and a luggage in hands.

Under the guise of being an expatriate who just returned from abroad, Amir used to keep close watch on other returnees and tried to befriend them.

He would offer a joint ride to some of the expatriates on a microbus driven by his cohort or on a bus.

Agreed, Amir and his cohorts sedated the expatriates and robbed their hard-earned money and other valuables on their way.

Rapid Action Battalion said this after they arrested Amir and three of his accomplices from Dhaka yesterday.

The three others are: Liton Mia alias Milton (48), Abu Bakar Siddique Parvez (35) Jakir Hossain (40).

"Amir is a kingpin of airport-based dope gang. He along with his gang members have sedated and robbed around 300 people, mostly expatriate, in last 15 years," Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's Legal and Media wing director told a press conference today.

Using the similar tricks, Amir on September 2 robbed the luggage, carrying valuables including eight bhoris of gold ornaments, of a Bangladeshi expatriate in Kuwait on their way to Bogura, Moin said.  

Moin said this gang, having at least 10 members, are active in Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for years. They mainly target those expats for whom only one relative come to the airport to take them home.

The Rab director said Amir was arrested twice—January and April—for same offence but re-engaged in the crime, coming out of jail on bail. He was accused in at least 15 cases.  

Milton is a microbus driver and started working as the close aid of Amir for the last three to four years. Parvez, a jewellery shop owner, used to buy the gold robbed from the expatriates, Rab officials said.

During the drives, Rab recovered five bhoris of gold and sedative-mixed biscuits from their possession.