Hundreds of smuggling routes in 10 districts of western and northern parts of the country have turned into gold mines. Somewhere along these border routes, various amounts of gold are being recovered every day.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has arrested 13 gold carriers including recovering 54 kg of gold from the border routes in the last two months. Apart from this, 450 kg of gold has been recovered in the last 4 years. The market value of these golds is approximately Tk 400 crores.
BGB recovered 54 kg of gold in 2019, 88 kg in 2020, 50 kg in 2021 and 195 kg in 2022. 190 carriers were arrested in these incidents. However, they could not trace the owner of the gold shipment during the interrogation.
BGB Director General (DG) Major General AKM Nazmul Hasan told reporters about stopping gold smuggling at the border, the technology that seems modern today will become obsolete tomorrow. Smugglers do their work by adopting new techniques. After arresting them, they changed their strategy. Because of this, BGB has to constantly change tactics and conduct search operations. BGB is working to prevent smuggling of gold, drugs and illegal goods at the border. Sources related to law and order forces said that the biggest route of gold smuggling is in Jessore district. There are at least 10 safe routes across the border of this district. Sadipur, Putkhali, Sharsha Shikarpur, Bhaberber, Daulatpur, Shyamalagazi routes of Benapole police station have the most cases of gold smuggling. Apart from this, gold is being smuggled through Jessore’s Manoharpur, Chachipur, Kashipur, Shalkona, Pakshia areas.
Chuadanga has three of the cross-border smuggling routes. These are Karpasdanga, Darshana and Jibannagar. There are 6 routes bordering West Bengal near Satkhira. These are Bhadiyali, Kaliganj, Sherpur, Bhomra, Nongla and Kaikhali. Gangni, Qutubpur, Katuli and Buripota in Kushtia, Dharmadah in Kushtia, Pragpur, Bilgatua, Char Bhabanandiya, Sonaikandi in Rajshahi, Haripur, Kashiadanga, Godagari, Charkhidirpur, Char Mazhardia, Alaipur, Bagha, Charghat, Godagari and Moktarpur, Manaksha in Chapainawabganj, Ghughupur, Ramakrishna. Shibganj, Kiranganj, Bholahat, Ramdaspur, Sapahar, Phulbari, Hili, Kamalpur and Birol in Dinajpur, Amjankhor, Haripur, Atgharia in Thakurgaon, Roumari and Phulbari in Kurigram and Burirhat in Lalmonirhat, Srirampur and Dahgram are smuggling gold into India. Farmers, day laborers, truck-lorry drivers, bailiffs, shepherds and fishermen are being used to smuggle gold through border areas. First, a carrier delivers the gold consignment to a specific person in the border area by road or train from Dhaka. Carriers carry tiffin boxes, baskets of seasonal fruits, vegetables and other sensitive parts of the body.
Gold smugglers smuggle the most gold by air from Dubai among Middle Eastern countries. Apart from this, cases of gold smuggling from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait were also caught at Hazrat Shahjalal Airport in Dhaka. As the international gold smuggling syndicate is using its own carrier in this work, sometimes the pilot, sometimes the crew, sometimes the air force is also used as a bait of money. Moreover, aircraft cleaners, trolleymen and even engineers were also found to be involved in this cycle. Smuggling of gold is taking place in vacuum cleaners, electric motors, various parts of the human body, top handles of trolleys and wallets with passenger carriers. In addition, the patient wears a wheel chair, anklets on the thighs, shoes, belts, shirt collars, sandals, soap cases, sound box adapters, various types of food or medicine boxes, shorts under pants, laptop batteries, wallets and Gold bars are also being brought as pendants hanging on the neck with a chain. After that, various strategies changed hands.
Bangladesh Journal/MA/Sujan
