Despite repeated use of courier services by transnational syndicates to smuggle drugs through Bangladesh to a third country, the government has turned down a proposal to use the National Identity Card server to verify the identity of the product sender.
The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) had placed the proposal before a virtual meeting of the National Narcotics Control Advisory Committee on December 28 last year. The DNC had said the courier and cargo service companies should be granted access to the NID server.
The advisory committee, led by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, also rejected another proposal seeking use of narcotics detection devices to check whether there are drugs in packets to be sent abroad by courier service companies.
To stop narcotics smuggling through national and international courier services, the Department of Narcotics Control has recommended National Identity Card server access for couriers.
The anti-drug authority of Bangladesh came up with the idea after it found that transnational syndicates are using the couriers to smuggle drugs into the Middle East, America, Australia and some countries in Asia.
Smuggling narcotics from neighbouring India and Myanmar, syndicates are using Bangladesh as a major transit route.
In just five months from June this year, the DNC seized around 14 consignments of drugs meant to be sent to Saudi Arabia and the US by air, Rameshwar Das, assistant director (intelligence) of DNC, told The Daily Star yesterday.