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Download PDF The probe into the smuggling of 75.5kg heroin to the UK has come to a halt as the investigators have not yet been able to collect relevant evidence from that country.
The investigators have been apparently idle for more than six months, waiting for the British government’s permission for visiting that country to collect the pieces of evidence for the two cases filed with the Motijheel and Sutrapur police stations.
The foreign ministry wrote a letter to the British High Commission in Dhaka last July, requesting it to take steps for the Bangladeshi investigators’ trip to the UK to carry out further investigation into the country’s biggest ever heroin smuggling case.
The government in its letter said the investigation officers of the two cases and two members of the CID-led team that probed the smuggling would visit the UK.
But home ministry sources said although four months have passed, the British government has not yet replied to the letter.
Seeking anonymity, a home ministry official told The Daily Star yesterday that the British High Commission official concerned said the letter has been forwarded to the British government.
“The British government is sincere to extend all help to Bangladesh to bring the culprits to book. It’s taking some time to reply the letter due to formalities,” the home ministry source quoted the British High Commission official as saying.
“Producing evidence seized in connection with the cases is essential for proving the allegation against the accused,” said a member of the probe team led by Criminal Investigation Department (CID). “If we fail to collect the evidence, there is good chance that the accused will be acquitted,” he said, requesting anonymity.
He also said they have already completed investigations in Bangladesh, tracked down the masterminds and persons involved, and that four of them have already given confessional statements before the magistrates.
The UK customs sent a message through the British mission in Mumbai, India in May 2005, accusing five Bangladeshi business firms of smuggling heroin to that country in the guise of food items, toiletries, cosmetics and floor tiles.
On being informed, National Board of Revenue (NBR) started an investigation and confirmed the validity of the allegations and involvement of the BD Foods Ltd, Emdad Traders, Jamil International, MM Enterprise, and Green Haven Enterprise in the smuggling racket.
Following a home ministry directive, a five-member team–comprising members of the CID, Special Branch (SB) of police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Bangladesh Bank, and Department of Narcotics Control–investigated the smugglings.
On May 14 last year, the police arrested BD Foods Chairman Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen after Nazmul Haider Bhuiyan Bulbul, a former official of BD Foods, and his cohort Mokhlesur Rahman Nayan, a cargo handler, told a magistrate that they had smuggled 21.5kg heroin to the UK at the directive of the top authorities of the company.
Momen also admitted to the CID-led team to smuggling “illegal goods” to the UK in the guise of legitimate items. He was later granted bail by the High Court.
The probe team also arrested six persons for their involvement in the drug running racket. They are Mainuddin and Abu Bakar Siddique Mithu of BD Foods, Mokhlesur Rahman, an associate of Abu Bakar, Nazmul, Kazi Zafar Reza of Rainbow Enterprise, and Abul Bashar of Green Heaven Enterprise. All of them are now in jail custody.
Reza and Bashar also confessed later to smuggling 54kg heroin to the UK.
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