The drug baron and image of Bangladesh

 A.H. Jaffor Ullah

Published on May 31, 2006

Bangladesh is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. As the beleaguered nation of nearly 150 million prepares itself to go for a nationwide election to elect parliamentary members in early 2007, many crosscurrents are running allover of which some does not bode well for the republic. There is a raging controversy over the conduct of the Chief Election Commissioner. The voter list prepared by the commissioner did not get the seal of approval from many political parties. Even the present law minister of Bangladesh, Barrister Moudud, complained about the veracity of the list.

The tiny nation had already witnessed three popular revolts, two in the countryside namely in Kansat and Shanir Akhra, and the other one in greater Dhaka where workers in the country�s burgeoning garment industry had destroyed a few factories and buildings to press their demands for equitable wages and other workplace related issues.

The above sporadic incidences have given a black-eye to the present regime of Khaleda Zia who is all but nonchalant about common men�s problem. She goes abroad to impress the impoverished masses of Bangladesh while not addressing the pressing pocket-book issues. The price of quotidian commodities is outpacing the wage growth of ordinary people. Thanks to countrywide inflation of staples. When she and her finance minister were asked how ordinary citizens could copout with the onslaught of inflation, their glib answer had caused laughter and made the headlines not for erudition but for their blithe disregard to ordinary people�s anxiety � how are they going to pay for rice, lentil, vegetables, etc.? The Pm and her minion had opined that the nation�s per capita income has gone up; therefore, the inflation in commodity prices is justifiable. Their view: People could afford to pay the higher prices. This kind of logic reminded this scribe the tale of Queen Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis the Sixteenth, who advised the hungry French subjects to eat cake if they can�t find any bread. Mrs. Khaleda Zia�s inanities know no bounds. If you happen to believe her words, Bangladesh�s people are making gobs of money - now that the nation�s GDP growth rate is going through the roof and thus they will be able to pay for the foodstuffs at higher prices. What a balderdash!

The BNP regime is very fussy about Bangladesh�s image to outside world. The news of Kansat revolt, Shanir Akhra revolt, and garments� worker unrest in Greater Dhaka, are painting a very dismal picture of Bangladesh. Outsiders think that the government is either not in control or trying to create a state of anarchy so that normal election process cannot go through. The ruling party is fearful of the notion that if the election were held today, they will lose it a big time. I do not think that Mrs. Zia regime is that much concern at this time about preserving the �pristine� image of Bangladesh to outside world. Therefore, the news of the arrest of Bangladeshi drug baron, Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen, in England is making any wave among Mrs. Zia and her inner circle.

We learned on May 28, 2006 that the chairman of one of Bangladesh�s most respected companies has been arrested on suspicion of trafficking a large amount of heroin into Britain. The arrest came after one of report published first in England, which revealed how consignments of food, floor tiles and beauty products, dispatched by a network of companies in Bangladesh ended up England filled with narcotics.

The news story caught everyone by surprise because Bangladesh was never considered to be one of those nations involved in narco trades. The drug dealers used Bangladeshi business house to ship heroine to England and thereby put the nation into world map turning an otherwise docile nation into a new conduit for narco trafficking into Britain.

The British police had arrested Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen, chairman of BD Foods Ltd, which is in the business of supplying spices and other food products to Britain's curry houses. He is now in prison on remand waiting for questioning.

Mr. Momen�s arrest came in the wake of disclosure by a former senior employee within BD Foods, Nazmul Haider Bulbul, in court documents as the mastermind behind the long-running drug smuggling operation. According to the documents, six senior government officials of Bangladesh are also alleged to have taken part in the scheme.

The British authorities allege that Mr. Momen was also involved in heroine trafficking to other EU nations from England. The Bangladeshi tycoon�s arrest has shocked the Bangladeshi business community in Britain where the drug baron was awarded the title of �Commercially Important Person� by the Bangladesh government for his outstanding performance in export business' for three years running. His company employed 3,000 staff around the world. The revelation that Mr. Momen was heavily involved in narco trafficking now puts the present government of Bangladesh headed by Khaleda Zia into shame. Whatever happened to her propaganda that Bangladesh�s image as a pristine nation should be preserved at all cost.

The drug baron had indeed become a major trafficker of heroine into Britain. Sources close to the investigation said Momen was being questioned about allegations that he smuggled about 948kg of heroin to the UK over the past 15 years and that he ran a lucrative drug distribution business out of the UK to other European nations. Mr. Momen had globalized his business operation. He allegedly bought heroin mainly from Pakistan, where he maintained an office

In April 2006 The Observer (England) reported that a network of ghost companies linked to BD Foods was solely responsible for bringing heroin to the UK. The news of the smuggling ring operated by Mr. Momen surfaced immediately after the British High Commission in Dhaka wrote to the Bangladesh government in 2005 asking it to investigate a number of firms that had dispatched heroin hidden in consignments of legitimate products to fake import companies based in London. Quite a serious charge, indeed.

In Britain customs authorities were alerted after three unclaimed consignments of street value $ 18.5 million turned up at Southampton and Felixstowe last year containing heroin. The British High Commission�s request in Dhaka had prompted the Bangladeshi government to establish a committee to investigate. Soon it found that at least five companies with close ties to BD Foods were involved in heroin trafficking to Britain.

The drug baron had other minions working for him Bangladesh. The owner of another Bangladeshi exporting company, Rainbow International, Kazi Zafar Reazul, has also admitted his involvement in shipping 54kg of heroin to the UK in March-April 2005.

Mind you, the �Get Rich Quick� scheme has its appeal to many people. The drug baron of Bangladesh was an ardent practitioner of this �great� scheme. The government of Bangladesh was too na�ve to bestow a prestigious award to the drug baron for the last three years in a row. What a shame! It remains to be seen how Mrs. Zia now handles this fiasco, which will surely mar the �pristine� image of Bangladesh. It is to be hoped that the court in Bangladesh would severely prosecute all those people who were connected with the drug trafficking and that includes a host of government officials. Next time someone becomes a tycoon in Bangladesh overnight, the government should do a serious audit before bestowing any coveted award to him or her or else, it would boomerang to haunt the Prime Minister. She had already earned many dubious distinctions and the last thing she needs an award for being the most na�ve Prime Minister of a populous nation. The �pristine� image of our motherland should be guarded by us all, shouldn�t we?

Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from the campus of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York