Heroin Smuggling: BB to probe BD Foods' transactions

Staff Correspondent

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) will ask 15 commercial banks to submit vouchers of 90,000 transactions carried out in the last three years by BD Foods Ltd, a company allegedly involved in heroin smuggling to the UK.

The central bank sources said they are going to collect the vouchers, following a request of the Central Investigation Department (CID), to find out any suspicious transaction between any group or person and BD Foods.

A senior BB official said the central bank will issue letters to the commercial banks today requesting information about BD Foods' banking between February 2003 and May 2006.

Sources said the central bank so far sent about 3,000 pages of documents to the CID in two phases since the intelligence agency had started the investigation. But, the CID has yet to trace the groups or persons with whom BD Foods had suspicious transactions in the last few years.

"So, the CID has asked for vouchers of all transactions carried out by BD Foods in the last three years," the BB official told The Daily Star. The CID will examine all the vouchers and interrogate any suspect party, he said.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank collected vouchers of some big deals done by BD Foods. The bank's sources said details of 360 bank transactions, each involving over Tk 1 crore, will be sent to the CID today.

"We think these 360 vouchers will be important documents in the process of investigating BD Foods' heroin smuggling to the UK," the official said.

The central bank also found 83 bank accounts of BD Foods and its sister concerns in which transactions of TK 331 crore were reported in the last three years. Of these bank accounts, BD Foods has 30 in Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and 28 in Exim Bank Ltd.

The UK customs in May 2005 accused Bangladeshi business firms of smuggling heroin to the UK in the guise of exporting food, toiletries, cosmetics and floor tiles. A National Board of Revenue (NBR) investigation confirmed the validity of the UK customs' allegations and involvement of BD Foods Ltd in the racket.