Cops make fifth arrest

A fifth person was arrested in Chittagong city's Agrabad yesterday afternoon over the liquid cocaine haul case.

Md Mehedi Alam, 30, is the cousin of arrestee Golam Mostafa Sohel, a manager of Prime Hatchery, a sister concern of Khan Jahan Ali Limited Ltd, consignee of the shipment containing the cocaine.

The shipment comprised 107 barrels with labels claiming the contents to be sunflower oil. One barrel tested positive for cocaine.

The barrels arrived at the Chittagong port on May 8 in a container shipped from Uruguay's Montevideo on being brought from Bolivia on a truck, as per investigators.

Mehedi, employee of a security company at Agrabad, had been interrogated and released on July 4 by the Detective Branch of police, said sources.

Meanwhile, a second Chittagong court rejected a bail petition of AK Azad, manager of the shipping agent, Cosco (Bangladesh) Shipping Lines Ltd.

The remaining two arrestees, Mostafa Kamal and his nephew Atiqur Rahman, who allegedly  tried to send the consignment to a third country, are now on a fresh 3-day remand on being interrogated earlier for 10 days.