A barrel imported through the Chittagong port one and a half months ago contains cocaine, said customs intelligence yesterday.

The cocaine was detected in a liquid substance inside a barrel that weighed 185 kg, which was imported from Bolivia along with 106 other barrels on May 12.

The other barrels carried sunflower oils, said intelligence sources.

Moinul Khan, director general of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, said they became sure about the cocaine after two tests, one of which were done at Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Dhaka.

“Both reports confirm the presence of cocaine in one of the seized barrels,” he told The Daily Star over the phone.

He said the quantity of the cocaine could not be known immediately as they do not have the adequate technical equipment to ascertain this.

He added that the liquid in the barrel was different in smell, colour and thickness from the sunflower oil in other barrels.

A top official of the intelligence, however, claimed one third of the liquid could be "liquid cocaine".

Chittagong Metropolitan Police said the container was imported without following proper procedures, so it remained stuck at the port.

A top official of the Special Branch (SB) of Police said they were informed by a foreign intelligence agency about the smuggling of a drug through a container from South America to somewhere else using Bangladesh as a transit.

Sources said all the 107 barrels were found in a container which was sealed off by Chittagong Detective Branch (DB) of police on June 6.

They added the container was opened on June 8 in the presence of top officials from different law enforcement agencies.

Initially an expert team from Narcotics Control Department (NCD) conducted a primary test on samples collected from all the barrels but could not detect the presence of any drug in them, Our Chittagong correspondent reports.

DB officials on June 6 held one Sohel, an employee of a local firm, in connection with the import of the barrels.