In the last 33 years, more than 500 cases of gold smuggling were lodged with the police and 495 persons arrested. Most cases were not resolved. Customs intelligence departments say that though criminal cases were not resolved, hundreds of divisional cases were settled.

Police headquarters say that from 1985 till 2018, 26 smugglers were given a variety of punishments. Of them, three were given life sentence. Police, RAB, BGB, Coastguard work to prevent gold smuggling and investigations are carried out by CID and DB.

If someone is caught with illegal shipment of gold then a criminal case is lodged, otherwise, it becomes a divisional case. In a divisional case, the abandoned gold has to be submitted to the government treasury.

Most of the illegal gold entering via the airports in Bangladesh come from Malaysia, Singapore, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Commenting on the delay in investigating gold smuggling cases, deputy commissioner of police’s public relations, Masudur Rahman, says: “an organised group is linked to the smuggling and the layers are many.

Consequently, arrested people cannot provide information about the mastermind, which delays the settlement of cases.”

CID’s police SP of organised crime department, Mollah Nazrul Islam, says: “there are three sides to a case of gold smuggling: the sender, the carrier and the receiver; identifying all three is difficult.”

Bangladesh is often used as a route for gold smuggling and money laundering is also linked to this, therefore, extra time is required, he added.

According to information, from July 2013 till June 2017, 1622.77 kg gold was recovered and 126 persons arrested. Since July 2017 till January 2018, 1717 kg gold was recovered with 189 arrested.