143 kg gold seized in 7 months
Gold smuggling goes unabated in the country with smugglers being regularly nabbed in airports. Illegal gold is also frequently caught during smuggling in border areas.
On 11 February, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department detained a passenger with about 3.289kg of gold at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
On 27 February, the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) seized 2.335kg of gold abandoned in a cowshed in Hudapara, a border area of Damurhuda Upazila, Chuadanga.
The amount of gold seized in the two incidents is 5.624 kg. The current market value of the seized gold is more than Tk 770 million.
The people concerned say that after the political changeover in the country last August, the shelter of gold smuggling has changed; but smuggling has not stopped. Smugglers have continued smuggling taking advantage of the law and order situation inside the country and the lack of surveillance at the border.
According to the BGB and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), these two organisations have recovered 143 kg of illegal gold in the seven months from August to February, whose current market value is more than Tk 1.96 billion.
Concerned people say that only a small amount of the smuggled gold is seized. The gold that the BGB and customs intelligence seizes is often done after receiving specific information. In most cases, the smuggled gold remains undetected.
BGB’s Director (operation) Lieutenant Colonel SM Shafiqur Rahman told Prothom Alo that recovering smuggled gold is difficult without specific information. Carriers often flee away getting tip-off about raids. Authorities cannot nab carriers in many cases.
He further said that the distance between two Border Outposts (BOP) of BGB is around 5-7 kilometers. A BOP is manned by 20-30 BGB men. Of them, 10 are deployed at a camp. This shortage of human resources makes it difficult to patrol the border for 24 hours. For this, the BGB depends on specific information.
582-kg gold seized
Gold smuggling is nothing new. Gold brought from countries of the Middle East is allegedly smuggled to India for a long time. Bangladesh is used as a route for gold smuggling as India is a huge market of gold ornaments.
A report published in Economic Times on 23 April in 2023 said India has a yearly demand of 800,000 kgs of gold. Around 80,000 to 90,000 kgs of gold enter India through smuggling, mostly through Bangladesh and Myanmar. These two countries are preferred due to lax surveillance systems.
The report also stated that the customs duties on gold imports into India are high. As a result, gold trade through smuggling is profitable. The price of each kg of gold entering India through smuggling is Rs 800,000 to 900,000 less.
In the last five years, BGB has seized 725 kg of gold from various border areas of the country. In the last five years, the CIID has seized 840 kg of gold from the country’s three international airports.
The Dhaka Customs House has seized 436 kg of gold from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport alone in the last two years. It is estimated that in the last two years, these three agencies have seized 1,164 kg of gold, which amounts to 582 kg per year.
Apart from these three agencies, the customs authorities also seize gold from land ports and two international airports outside Dhaka. The figures were not available.
According to sources in the Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies, traders smuggle gold from Bangladesh to India in two ways. One is through passengers traveling legally. In this case, the gold is taken without declaring or by false declaration. The other way is through illegal smuggling.
After 5 August 2024, India has been issuing visas to Bangladeshis very rarely. As a result, the travel of Bangladeshis to India has been limited. However, the smugglers have not relented as they are using the border routes for smuggling.
Analysing the cases over the past decade, officials said smugglers have been using over 90 routes of at least eight districts. Jashore, Satkhira, Chuadanga and Jhenaidah districts have at least 50 routes.
Syed Musfiqur Rahman, Director General of CIID, told Prothom Alo that there is a demand for gold in the country and outside the country (India). Apart from that, it is heard that the price of smuggling from India to Bangladesh is paid through gold. In this way, gold from various countries including the Middle East is smuggled into India. Bangladesh is mainly used as a transit point for gold smuggling.
The smugglers are not nabbed
It was not possible to find out who kept the 2.335 kg of gold recovered from the abandoned cowshed of Damurhuda in Chuadanga. No one has been arrested in this incident. The BGB says that the gold bars were kept for smuggling to India.
A case has been filed at Damurhuda police station against unknown persons in this incident. Damurhuda police station officer-in-charge (OC) Md Humayun Kabir told Prothom Alo that no one has been identified.
The carriers of gold are often caught. However, it is seldom possible to identify the main smugglers, sponsors and investors.
For example, on 28 February this year,the BGB arrested two people with 18 gold bars worth Tk 29.4 million from a passenger bus in the Chuadanga Sadar area. A case was also filed at the Chuadanga Sadar police station in this incident. The police are investigating the case. However, so far, it has not been possible to identify anyone from the gang except the two carriers.
Chuadanga Sadar police station OC Md Khaledur Rahman told Prothom Alo that the two arrested are carriers. They have been extensively interrogated. However, no specific information has been found from them.
He further said that gold smugglers use many tricks. The carriers do not know who the owner of the gold is. As a result, no one except the carrier can be identified.
In addition to Chuadanga, an investigation into eight cases in Jashore, Jhenaidah and Satkhira since 5 August has shown that the gang could not be identified in any of these cases. BGB filed these cases.
Lieutenant Colonel SM Shafiqur Rahman, BGB’s Director (operations) told Prothom Alo that BGB does not have much to do after smugglers are caught since police investigate the cases filed.
Dhaka Customs House arrested four persons with seven kgs of gold from Shahjalal International Airport on 3 December. A case was filed against them in the Airport police station. None except these four have so far been identified.
An analysis of four more cases filed with Airport police station reveals that none except carriers were identified in these cases.
Taslima Akter, OC of Airport police station, told Prothom Alo that carriers don’t actually know the identities of senders and receivers. As a result, the arrest of carriers doesn’t reveal anything in details about the smuggler ring.
CIID seizes most smuggled gold in three international airports.
Syed Mushfiqur Rahman of CIID told Prothom Alo that more importance should be attached to investigating the cases of gold smuggling.
What is the loss
Many crimes take place centering the gold smuggling. On 13 May last year, Jhenaidah-4 constituency's then lawmaker Anwarul Azim was killed. Feud of a transnational gold smuggling gang was behind his murder. It is assumed that gold is used to pay the price of smuggled drugs.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told Prothom Alo that gold is used for illegal businesses.
Any illegal business means revenue loss for the government. Gold smuggling hits the country’s foreign reserves.
He said there is a huge extent of informal trade between Bangladesh and India. Revenue would have increased if this trade were legal.
* The report, originally published in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Galib Ashraf