Heroin worth $4mn seized at Dhaka airport

DHAKA: Authorities at the international airport have seized 23.5 kg of heroin valued at $4 million from two China-bound Bangladeshi passengers, suspected to be part of an international smugglers' gang.

Dhaka residents Ariful Islam Bhuiyan and Mahmud Ali, aged between 30 and 35, were headed for Kunming via Beijing on a China Eastern Airlines flight, The Daily Star said quoting customs officials. The duo has been arrested.

Additional Commissioner, Customs, at the Zia International Airport, Humayun Kabir, said the smugglers used carbon paper to wrap the contraband to avoid detection by scanners.

The heroin packs, kept hidden under false bottoms of their luggage, below lemons, spices, packs of tea and lentils, were detected with the help of sophisticated equipment.

He said Bhuiyan and Ali had confessed their involvement in drug smuggling and disclosed that they had visited several countries as part of the racket.

According to Kabir, the two had business visas.

The government has sought Beijing's help to find their contact in China.

This is the largest ever heroin haul in Bangladesh since a sensational 24 kg seizure in 1999. Three Pakistani nationals -- Ibrahim, Rais Khan and Alekjan - had been arrested on that occasion.

Rais Khan and Alekjan were given death sentences on July 7, 2005 while Ibrahim died in jail earlier.

International narcotics movement experts believe Bangladesh is part of the drug trail that extends from Afghanistan to Southeast Asia, using China and Central Asia as a route to transport the contraband to Europe and thence to the US.