Habibur Rahman alias Nasir, 45, a passenger of Dragon Air from Hong Kong, landed at the ZIA at 1:10am carrying two cartons stashed with different models of Nokia cellphones.

Customs sources said Habibur was trying to load the two cartons onto a container carrier parked in the apron area of the airport.

"Instead of putting the cartons on the conveyor belt, he was trying to load those onto the vehicle," said a customs official. Some workers of the loading section and security men were assisting him, he added.

As members of the police and Armed Police Battalion noticed the incident and rushed to the spot the workers and security men ran away.

The law enforcers captured Habibur and later handed him over to Airport police.

In another customs recovery on March 26, officials seized cellphones along with battery packs worth around Tk 1.66 crore at ZIA.

Declaring it sewing machines, the smugglers attempted to make of with 4,000 cellphones, packed in 12 cartons inside a wooden box.