Ctg court orders sending samples to 3 Dhaka labs

A Chittagong court yesterday sealed off liquid samples collected from 107 barrels seized from a container in Chittagong Port following a tip-off on cocaine smuggling and ordered sending those to three laboratories in Dhaka to identify the contents.

Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Farid Alam also told the investigation officer, Md Kamruzzaman, to contact the foreign ministry to see if tests could be conducted in advanced laboratories abroad.

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The three Dhaka labs are that of Criminal Investigation Department, the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) and the armed forces.

Kamruzzaman, also an assistant commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police's detective branch, collected the samples.

He was accompanied by officials of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), Chittagong Customs House, the Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation, and DNC.

Khan Jahan Ali Limited, a Chittagong-based importing firm, was the consignee of the container shipped from Montevideo Port in Uruguay by Import Export El Vaiven SRL of Santa Cruz of Bolivia.

Customs intelligence on June 6 sealed off the container which arrived at Chittagong Port on May 8. The 107 barrels inside had labels claiming the contents to be sunflower oil.

On June 8, DNC's drug testing kit failed to detect anything suspicious.

On June 27, two tests at government laboratories, one at Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Dhaka, confirmed the presence of liquid cocaine in one barrel. A case was filed that day.