Bangladesh seizes $6 million cocaine haul at airport

DHAKA - Bangladesh anti-drugs officers seized $6.2 million of cocaine at Dhaka airport and arrested a Spanish national on suspicion of smuggling, officials said Wednesday, the country's second-biggest haul of the substance.

P.J. Julian, 47, was arrested at the Bangladeshi capital's airport on Tuesday evening with three kilos of cocaine hidden inside the lid of his suitcase, the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) said.

Cocaine is not a popular drug in Bangladesh, but international cartels use it as a "safe route" for smuggling it into Europe and Southeast Asia, seeing the country as less likely to come under suspicion.

Julian had travelled to Dhaka from Brazil's Sao Paulo via Dubai, before being arrested by officials acting on a tip-off from the United States about a suspected trafficker.

"The drugs in the suitcase could not be traced in the scanner, but we knew the tag of the suspected luggage," DNC director Towfique Uddin told AFP.

Julian is expected to appear in court today and could face the death pena

AFP