Snake venom worth Tk 75 crore seized, six arrested

Rapid Action Battalion seized snake venom worth Tk 75 crore and arrested six smugglers from Dhaka's Dakshinkhan area yesterday afternoon.

The arrestees are: Masud Rana, 24, Sofir Uddin Sanu, 50, Tamjidul Islam Monir, 34, Alamgir Hossain, 26, Firoza Begum, 57 and Asma Begum, 42.

The six, supposedly members of an international snake venom smuggling racket, were arrested while they were gathering at Gulbar Munsi Sarani area around 3:30pm, said Abdullah Al Mamun, assistant director (Media) of Rab-2.

The value of the venom is worth around Tk 75 crore, he added.

During primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted that they used to collect the venom from different areas to supply to a specific ring, the officials said, adding filing of a case is underway in this regard.

According to different law enforcement agencies, the smugglers were using Bangladesh as a route to smuggle the venom into Indonesia and Malaysia and some other countries.

Snake venom is used in Asian traditional medicine.