Aircraft cleaner held with 32 gold bars

Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn) detained an aircraft cleaner with gold bars weighing 3.712 kilogrammes at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka this morning.

The detainee is Jonathan Mukti Barikdar, 34. 

Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations and Media) of Airport Armed Police Md Alamgir Hossain said Jonathan was detained with 32 gold bars hidden in his shoes. The market value of the seized gold is estimated at Tk1.85 crore.

According to sources, Emirates flight EK582 arrived Dhaka from Dubai at 7:55am today. Jonathan entered the plane after the passengers came down from the aircraft. When he came out of the plane, members of the Airport Armed Police searched him and found the gold bars. 

Jonathan said his colleague named Mamun gave him the gold bars in the aircraft. Later, he went to the toilet in the plane and hid those in his shoes. 

He was supposed to hand over the bars to his In-charge Atique in exchange of Tk20,000.