Enforcement officers from the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) have intercepted an Indian national at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka for attempting to smuggle three kilograms of premium-grade kush into the country. The arrest comes amid heightened vigilance at the international gateway, following a related incident earlier in the week where two fellow Indian citizens abandoned more than four kilograms of the high-potency narcotic before fleeing the terminal.
The apprehended suspect, identified as Hossain Abdul Kader Sheikh from the southern Indian state of Karnataka, was intercepted on Saturday afternoon as he passed through the airport’s customs Green Channel. Acting on behavioural cues and targeted profiling, DNC surveillance teams stopped Sheikh for a secondary luggage examination.
Dr Md Abu Sayeed Mia, representing the DNC Dhaka Metro (North) division, confirmed that a meticulous physical inspection of the suspect’s trolley bag exposed packages of kush concealed beneath layers of apparel. Officers confiscated the contraband along with Sheikh’s Indian passport, a mobile handset, and multiple foreign currencies comprising 400 US dollars, 1,550 Thai baht, and 400 Indian rupees.
During initial questioning by narcotics investigators, Sheikh stated that he had flown into Dhaka acting as an international courier for a broader trafficking ring. He disclosed that a syndicate of local collaborators based in Bangladesh had arranged his travel logistics, promising to secure his lodging and orchestrate the domestic retail distribution of the contraband across the capital. Authorities have formally charged him under the Narcotics Control Act at the Airport Police Station.
The arrest follows another cross-border trafficking attempt at the same aviation hub on Tuesday evening. In that case, two men managed to slip past security cordons by abandoning two luggage trolleys filled with 4.18 kilograms of kush alongside photocopies of their national travel documents.
According to a statement issued by the DNC, the fugitive suspects—identified as Akash Dubey, 28, and Akash Pandey, 34, both hailing from Gondolpara in Kolkata, West Bengal—touched down at approximately 6:30 pm aboard a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. Spotting uniformed narcotics personnel positioned near the customs clearance zone, the two men abandoned their bags and exited the terminal into the exterior passenger concourse.
A joint inspection by airport security agencies later confirmed the abandoned luggage contained the high-value cannabis derivative. A separate criminal case has been lodged at the Airport Police Station, with investigators currently examining closed-circuit television recordings from the arrivals hall, transit corridors, and outer car parks to track the pair’s movements and establish their local network.
