Biman staffer arrested with 12 gold bars

Customs intelligence officials yesterday arrested two people, including an employee of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, with 12 gold bars at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital.

The arrestees were identified as Omar Faruk, a ground traffic supervisor of Biman, and Kazi Qamrul Islam, a passenger of a Biman flight coming from Kuala Lumpur.

Moinul Khan, director general of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, told The Daily Star that acting on a tip off, the officials took position in boarding bridge area around 4:30am.

They kept a close eye on Qamrul after the flight had landed at 4:50am, he said, adding, the passenger was seen handing over two packets to Faruk.

The officials challenged them and found the gold bars weighing 1.2 kilograms inside the packet, he added.

The duo would be handed over to airport police.

Earlier on March 6, detectives pressed charges against 18 people including eight Biman employees in connection with a case filed over the country's biggest ever haul of smuggled gold in 2013.

The customs officials seized 1,064 gold bars weighing around 124 kg that had been left abandoned in the luggage chamber of a Biman flight on July 24 that year.