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Narcotics Dept ordered to submit list of drug dealers
High Court
Jehangir Hussain
The High Court Division on Sunday ordered the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) to submit within a month a list of the country’s top drug dealers with their names and addresses.
A bench comprising of Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing a writ petition on the issue.
The bench also directed the authorities concerned to hold an enquiry in two months into the allegation of laundering money earned from the illegal drug trade by some Bangladeshi citizens.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, Criminal Investigation Department of police and Department of Narcotics Control have been ordered to conduct the enquiry.
The bench in a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why their inaction and failure to take legal action against the persons and organisations, who accumulated money from drug dealing and laundered from Bangladesh unlawfully violating laws of the land should not be declared as illegal.
Supreme Court lawyer Subir Nandi Das had on June 13 filed the writ seeking directives on the authorities concerned to hold an inquiry into reported laundering money earned from illegal drug trade by some Bangladeshi citizens.
The lawyer filed the petition on the basis of reports published by newspapers on June 11 stating that Bangladesh ranked fifth in the world and top in Asia in laundering money earned from illegal drug trade, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) report.
The report said drug trafficking in Bangladesh is estimated to have generated an annual average of $481million in outward illicit financial flows (IFFs) between 2017 and 2021.
Among Asian countries, Bangladesh topped in money laundering through drug trading, according to the UNCTAD report, the other countries being, Afghanistan, Colombia, Ecuador, Maldives, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal and Peru as .
Deputy Attorney General Saifuddin Khaled represented the state while Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan appeared for the Anti-Corruption Commission.
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