In a major crackdown, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials seized 31.75 kg of gold worth over Rs. 8 crore from suspects who arrived in two international flights that landed from Colombo and Dubai on Saturday. Three passengers were arrested while ten others were detained for interrogation, DRI sources said.
Following a specific input that a gang had planned to smuggle a huge quantity of gold, the sleuths intercepted passengers under suspicion at the international airport here by Mihin Lanka (MJ 305) and SpiceJet (SG 24) flights that arrived from Colombo and Dubai respectively.
Reliable sources said the interrogation went on for over 10 hours and the teams examined the passports, mobile phones and other documents before carrying out a search on the waiting flight. An official said that some insiders working in the Madurai airport were also questioned.
Even as a team was interrogating the suspects, another team searched the aircraft and found 31.75 kg of gold concealed under different seats/rows. While some of the gold bars weighed one kg, many were in the form of gold biscuits weighing 100 grams each.
Though there have been reports of gold smuggling and seizures after the international flight operations commenced in Madurai about two years ago, the seizure of over 30 kg of gold in a single operation is a major catch, an official monitoring the operation said.
During investigation, it had come to light that some of the smuggling gangs had adopted a ‘unique’ modus operandi, which would help them walk away without being scanned by security agencies.
According to official sources, passengers in the form of ‘couriers’ would bring in items like cigarettes, liquor bottles, clothes and perfumes and conceal the yellow metal underneath their seats. On arrival, they would pass through the green channel, which means that they have nothing to declare or pay duty.
On select days, flights which arrive from Dubai and Colombo in Madurai also operate to domestic destinations such as Chennai, where there would be no Customs check on arrival at the domestic terminal. Smugglers would deploy another set of passengers to smuggle out the yellow metal allegedly concealed underneath their seats by their gang members, who arrived in the same flight, sources said.
