Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members seized gold, arms, dollars, and drugs worth Tk 120 crore and arrested 378 persons involved in smuggling and trafficking along the border areas of Jashore's Benapole in 2020.

The seized items include 23 pistols, 41 magazines, 105 rounds of bullets, 55,498 bottles of phensedyl, 953 kg of marijuana, 550 bottles of alcohol, 1850 pieces of yaba, 772 kilograms of gold bars, and $738,000. The value of the seized items is Tk 120 crore, according to a survey.  

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49 BGB Jashore Battalion Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel Md. Selim Reza said ‘a total of 378 persons involved in different smuggling activities were apprehended in the last one year’.

"The commoners of this area are now meddling with smugglers as they can eke out a living in a short period by smuggling. Several drug traders drag others in the black- market posing as godfathers as well," Lt Col Selim Reza said.  

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BGB source said vigilance has been stepped up along the border areas to curb all these criminal activities. In the meantime, a list of smugglers has been put together. They are confident that, with a little help they can bring smuggling under control.

The communication route is safe for smuggling in Benapole. It is even hard to identify the citizenship of commoners here as it is home to lots of residents of both Bangladesh and India. And the smugglers take advantage of this opportunity.

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Smugglers of borders in Kaiba, Rudrapur, Goga, Ogrovulat, Panchvulat, Shalkona, Pakshiya, Dihi, Shkarpur, Ramchandrapur, Putkhali, Doulotpur, Gatipara, Sadipur, Raghunathpur, Ghiba, Dhannokhola carry out a lot of operations.

The source said BGB is rigorous to resist the trafficking. But traders have it easy to smuggle goods into Bangladesh due to Indian Border Security Force’s (BSF) frigidity.

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Selim Reza said, "The ringleaders of these criminal activities don’t convey items themselves as a result they remain out of reach. Even if now and then police manage to apprehend the ringleaders, they fail to bring the smugglers to book due to lack of evidence against them."

UP Chairman of Benapole Bozlur Rahman opined, "Law enforcers could prevent smuggling if the bail of the godfathers is delayed."

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