Undercover 5kg order leads to 30kg Hong Kong shisha haul, three arrested in Bangshal and Uttara raids

Some 30kg of illegal shisha had been imported from Hong Kong under the cover of spices. After two months of intelligence surveillance, an officer of the Department of Narcotics Control posed as a buyer and ordered 5kg of shisha — and it was while supplying that order that the entire consignment was caught.

Three people, including the importer and a supplier, have been arrested in the case. The shisha was recovered in raids in Dhaka's Bangshal and Uttara areas on Wednesday night and Thursday morning by the department's Dhaka divisional intelligence office.

Md Mehedi Hasan, deputy director of the Dhaka divisional intelligence office, said on Thursday night that intelligence surveillance had been carried out for two months to identify the shisha importers and trace their entire network. At one stage, the department's assistant director Mostak Ahmed posed as a buyer and placed an order for five kilograms of shisha with the people concerned.

The deputy director said the activities linked to the shisha imports were then kept under watch. It was while collecting that 5kg of shisha that a further 25kg was traced, bringing the total imported quantity to 30kg.

Department sources said a team led by Deputy Director Md Mehedi Hasan raided an establishment named As-Sunnah in a building on North South Road under Bangshal police station on Wednesday night, detaining a man named Md Solayman Ahmed alias Shuvo (31).

Acting on information given by Solayman, officers then searched inside the establishment and recovered 30kg of Al Fakher brand shisha kept in three cartons.

In initial questioning, Solayman said he had collected the shisha from Md Shakil Ahmed, owner of Saba and Rehan Enterprise under Uttara East police station. Acting on that information, officers raided the Uttara establishment on Thursday morning and arrested Shakil Ahmed, seizing various documents linked to the shisha supply.

Acting on information from Shakil Ahmed, officers then raided an establishment named Trust Global Trading in Uttara Sector 11 and arrested its owner, Md Mehedi Hasan (46).

Initial questioning found that this Mehedi Hasan imported shisha from Hong Kong through his agent, then supplied it to Saba and Rehan Enterprise owner Shakil Ahmed, through whom the shisha reached Solayman.

The department said a review of the arrestees' mobile phones and related information also found evidence of shisha trading and financial transactions with another man, Salman Nibir (26). In initial questioning, Solayman said he and Salman Nibir, in collusion with each other, had long been running the illegal shisha business and that several more people were involved in the ring. Efforts are under way to arrest Salman Nibir.

Department officials are investigating further into the source of the recovered shisha and the import process — in particular how the goods were brought into Bangladesh from Hong Kong under the cover of spices. How customs duty and VAT were paid at the time of import is also under investigation, as is whether illegal narcotics were imported under the cover of legal import documents and duty-VAT payments.

A case has been filed at Bangshal police station under the Narcotics Control Act against Md Solayman Ahmed Shuvo, Md Shakil Ahmed and Md Mehedi Hasan, and an officer of the Department of Narcotics Control is investigating it. Efforts are continuing to identify and arrest the ring's fugitive members and others involved.