Three Pakistani women held with heroin in Dhaka

DHAKA: Three Pakistani women were arrested on Wednesday at the Dhaka airport after they were found with 13 kilograms of heroin, one of the largest drug hauls in Bangladesh, a customs official said.

“The drug was hidden in paste tubes and kept in (their) bags,” said Golam Kibria, assistant customs commissioner, at Zia International Airport. He told journalists the tubes were detected after scanning and preliminary tests by narcotics officials confirmed the drug was heroin. “The drug is worth about 130 million taka (2.25 million US dollars),” Kibria said.

The customs officials said it was Bangladesh’s largest haul of the drug in recent memory. They said the three women came to Dhaka from Pakistan via Dubai. Another customs official named them as Nazma, 35, Noor Jehan, 42, and Kohinoor, 38. “We are questioning them and think Nazma is the ring leader,” said the official. Drug smuggling carries death penalty in Bangladesh. —AFP

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