The goods belonging to several influential and large importers of the country based in Khatunganj, Asadganj and Chaktai areas in the port city were stockpiled in three large warehouses. The army identified East West Trading, Ahmed Trading, Abul Khair Edible, AK Corporation, H Brothers, Rifat Trading, Gazi & Brothers and Akhtar Impact Company to be the owners of the seized goods.

Of them, East West Trading, an enterprise of Mashud & Brothers, is one of the country's leading importers of basic commodities -- especially sugar. Mashud & Brothers is infamous for leading a powerful cartel that controls sugar market in the country. The joint forces could not arrest its owner, Abul Bashar Chowdhury, as he went into hiding before the joint forces arrived at his business establishment, sources said.

The joint forces raided Mashud & Brothers and Ahmed Trading at Khatunganj at around 11:30am. From there they detained three of Mashud & Brothers' staff -- Subhash Chowdhury, Mohammad Ali and Abdur Rahman, and an Ahmed Trading official Sabbir Ahmed.

During primary interrogations, the four revealed that their firms are involved in hoarding huge quantities of basic commodities in three warehouses rented from Victory Jute Mill in the AK Khan Gate area under Pahartali Police Station of the city, added the sources.

The four arrestees led the joint forces to the warehouses where huge quantities of adulterated goods were found stockpiled in thousands of sacks. Hundreds of workers were busy mixing up substandard and unsafe goods with quality edible goods to be supplied to wholesale and retail markets all over the country.

The seized items included 50,000 sacks of wheat, 50,000 sacks of sugar, 25,700 sacks of lentil, 23,720 sacks of mustard seeds and 28,450 sacks of peas.

The present wholesale value of the goods was estimated at around Tk 35 crore, sources said.

The four arrestees were not handed over to police till submitting this report yesterday evening.