8 members of clothing smuggling ring arrested in Narayanganj

News Desk: RAB has arrested eight members of an export-oriented clothing theft and smuggling ring from Kanchpur BSCIC industrial city in Narayanganj's Sonargaon upazila.

They were arrested on Thursday (February 11th) morning while trying to smuggle clothes in a raid on Premium Beverage Food and Drinking Water Limited factory. A covered van worth crores of rupees was recovered from them. Jasim Uddin Chowdhury, senior assistant director of RAB-11 battalion, said an organized gang almost snatched vehicles loaded with goods from various garment factories on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.

Later they are smuggled illegally. After receiving such allegations from various people, the RAB intelligence team has been monitoring the cycle for the last one month. Following this, RAB on Thursday morning came to know that a covered van of readymade garments was being looted and smuggled from Kanchpur BSCIC. Later, RAB raided the place and arrested eight members of the gang and recovered a covered van full of clothes worth crores of rupees. However, seven to eight more members of the gang escaped during the RAB operation.

The arrested are Liton, Dulal, Lokman Chowkidar, Alauddin, Shakil, Mostafa, Minhaj Ahmed and Rubel. Most of the people, including Mizan and Sohag, are in Bhola district. Others are residents of Dhaka, Narayanganj and surrounding districts. The owner and authorities of the recovered goods said that the covered van filled with garments manufactured at Optimum Fashion Wire Limited factory of Fatulla police station in Sadar upazila had left for Chittagong port for shipment abroad.

During the journey, the driver of the covered van and the helper conspired to smuggle the covered van inside the premium Beverage Food and Drinking Water Limited factory in Kanchpur BSCIC and tried to steal it, according to RAB. The thieves have been taking the covered van full of exported clothes to their convenient place and stealing 10 to 20 clothes from each carton in a fancy way by opening the cartons full of clothes prepared for shipment.

As a result of all these thefts, the garment owners would suffer financially and the image of the country would be tarnished by the foreign buyers as they could not pay the shipments as per the demand and order. The owner of the product, Abed Ali Sharif, also said that some unscrupulous employees of a factory called Premium Beverage Food and Drinking Water Limited and a transport helper were involved in the scam.

At a press conference in the afternoon, the commander of RAB-11 battalion said that legal action is being taken against the arrested accused and efforts are being made to identify other members involved and bring them under the law. Apart from this, RAB is also looking into the issue of who is helping the gang of clothes theft and smuggling.