This paper reports on the effectiveness of magnetic nanoparticles as pinning center in the Bi-based superconductor tapes. Nanosize gamma-Fe2O3 and ultrafine Fe3O4 have been employed to enhance the transport current density of Ag-sheathed-(Bi1.6Pb0.4)Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 superconductor tapes prepared by the powder-in-tube technique. The transport critical current density, J, of (Bi1.6Pb0.4)Sr2Ca2Cu3O10-(gamma-Fe2O3)(0.01), sintered at the optimum temperature of 845 degrees C is 6490 A/cm(2) when measured at 77 K. A further single intermediate rolling step increases J, to 9560 A/cm(2). Samples without gamma-Fe2O3 prepared under the same condition showed a lower J, with a maximum of 1560 A/cm(2). Similar results are also obtained for ultrafine Fe3O4. Magnetic impurities generally suppress superconductivity. However, our study shows great promise of magnetic nanorod gamma-Fe2O3 and ultrafine Fe3O4 as novel pinning centers in enhancing the transport critical density of Ag sheathed Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O superconductor tapes. This is in line with previous calculations on frozen flux superconductor with magnetic nanoparticle as pinning centers.