Chattogram Customs House and Customs Intelligence seized another container of illegally imported liquor from Chattogram Port yesterday.

The container was imported by issuing a false declaration and using fake import permission of a Uttara EPZ-based company.

Meanwhile, Rab arrested three, including a clearing and forwarding agent employee, in connection with illegal liquor seized from Narayanganj on Saturday.

The arrestees are Md Nazmul Mollah (23), Saiful Islam (34) and Abdul Ahad (22). They were arrested from Wari and the Airport area of the capital.

Rab-11 seized two containers of liquor in Narayanganj. Both consignments were released from Chattogram port with forged documents on Friday night.

According to the press release, Rab conducted several drives and seized around one crore of local and foreign currency from a house at Wari Thana in the capital.

Rab said Ahad, an employee of the C&F agent, is associated with his father Azizul Islam who runs the syndicate.

They have imported large quantities of liquor through false declarations over the last year. They stock the liquor in their warehouse in Munshiganj's Srinagar, Wari and Bongshal.

This correspondent could not reach the owners of the C&F agent Zafar Ahmed and Azizul Islam over the phone despite repeated attempts. 

"A group of frauds is using the name of EPZ's companies to import liquor illegally. They are using forged and expired IPs to release illegal goods from the port and the customs," said Nazma Binte Alamgir, executive director of BEPZA, said in a press release. 

Mobara Khanam, director general of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, told this correspondent, "The same syndicate is involved with the two incidents. They were able to release the previous two consignments through the same forgery. Several other consignments of the C&F agent have also been kept in the suspect list."

"It is clear that this is a syndicated crime. Such crimes cannot be organised without the involvement of related customs officials. It is not possible to stop illegal smuggling if officials cannot find out who is involved in this syndicate," she added.

Customs officials seized 31,625.5 litres of liquor worth Tk 29.16 crore from previously seized containers, that were seized from Narayanganj on Saturday around eight hours after being cleared from Chattogram port.