A customs preventive team seized 76 gold bars weighing around 8.8 kg from an aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport here on Wednesday.
Sources at the airport said both the preventive team of Dhaka Customs House and Airport Armed Police had information that a gold consignment was being brought from Abu Dhabi by a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
The customs preventive team launched a search inside the aircraft, which landed in Dhaka from Abu Dhabi via Sylhet around 3:40pm, after all the passengers got down from it.
“Based on secret information, we started the search around 4pm. After five hours of frantic efforts, we recovered the gold consignment around 9:06pm,” said Sajjad Hossain, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Customs House.
The gold bars were kept hidden inside pipes of six seats, he said.