Largest Shipment Of Cocaine Seized From HSIA

The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has seized the largest shipment of solid cocaine in the country's history. This shipment of cocaine came from the African country of Malawi or Ethiopia.

Bangladesh was being used as a transit route to smuggle the consignment. Because there is no demand for this amount of cocaine in Bangladesh.

The value of the seized drugs is about Tk 100 crore. A woman from the African country of Malawi brought this shipment of 8 kg 300 grams of cocaine to Bangladesh. Her name is Nomthendazo Tawera Soko.

She was arrested with this shipment from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Wednesday night.

Narcotics Control Department Director (Operations) Tanveer Momtaz came up with this information in a press conference organized at the DNC's North office in Tejgaon of the capital on Thursday.

Tanveer Mumtaz said we received information that a large consignment of cocaine would arrive in Dhaka via an African national on a Qatar Airways flight from Africa, with some local and foreign active members of the international cocaine smuggling syndicate intending to use Bangladesh as a transit. Based on this information, a team from the Narcotics Control Department along with APBN was stationed at the boarding bridge area of ​​Terminal 8 of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Wednesday. We follow all foreign passengers who disembark from the flight. Among them, a foreign woman named Nomthendazo Tawera Soko can be seen staying at the visa-on-arrival desk on the airport's ground floor for a long time. Her movements were observed and she was interrogated as she became suspicious. During interrogation, she admitted that the luggage contained the illegal drug cocaine. Later, 8 kg 300 g of cocaine specially kept inside the luggage was seized. 

He said Nomthendazo Tawera Soko is a citizen of the African country of Malawi. She first went to Ethiopia from Malawi. Later she moved from Ethiopia to Doha. Later she came to Bangladesh on a Qatar Airlines flight from Doha. She was supposed to go to Malawi again from Bangladesh on February 4. The shipment of cocaine was supposed to use Bangladesh as a transit route. Later the shipment of cocaine from Bangladesh would go to some other country. We believe Tawera Soko collected this shipment of cocaine from either Malawi or Ethiopia. 

During the interrogation, Soko said that he came to Bangladesh once in 2023. She came talking about the garment business. This time she brought an invitation letter from a garment company in Bangladesh. She was trying to enter Bangladesh under the name of the garment business, hiding her identity to get an on-arrival visa. Soko is a nurse by profession and is the carrier of this shipment of cocaine. She was supposed to deliver the consignment to another foreign national in Bangladesh and leave for his country.