Staff Correspondent

The members of the Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and National Security Intelligence (NSI) have detained two persons, including a car driver of Novoair, and seized 40 pieces of gold bars from their possessions at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

The detainees are identified as Md Helal, 51, and Kamal Hossain, 29, Mohammad Ziaul Haque, additional superintendent of police (ASP) for the APBn, provided these details in a press release on Saturday.

As part of the efforts to thwart the spate of gold smuggling through the airport, the APBn and NSI members have been keeping a close watch in and around the airport round the clock.

Based on intelligence, the members of the law enforcement agencies were monitoring Helal's movements as he exited through the internal arrival gate on Saturday.

The lawmen noticed that Helal was getting into a CNG-run three-wheeler along with Kamal from the driveway of the domestic terminal.

At one point, the APBn and NSI members intercepted them in front of Bangabandhu’s monument as they were departing the airport.

Then, the duo was taken to the APBn office, and in a search there, they recovered a total of 40 pieces of gold bars weighing 4.640kg from inside a bag belonging to Kamal, according to the press release.

Ziaul Haque said that the current estimated value of the seized gold bars is approximately Tk 5 crore.

During the primary interrogation, Kamal confessed that Helal gave him the gold bars to send to a specified destination in exchange of Tk 10,000.

The process of lodging a case with the Airport Police Station against the detainees is underway, he said.