: The probe into the smuggling of gold through the Cochin International Airport Limited on Tuesday received a major breakthrough with the customs officials detaining four ground handling staff at the airport here.
“We have arrested four persons on charges of facilitating gold smuggling through the airport here. We have also detained a couple of more persons for interrogation and are on the lookout for two more persons, who are absconding,” K.N. Raghavan, Commissioner of Customs, told The Hindu .
The accused have been identified as Shinoy K.M., Sharat M.B. and Sentrakumar of Kochi and Bibin Skariya of Alappuzha, employed with the BWFS, a ground handling agency. They were produced in the Economic Offences Court in Kochi and remanded in custody.
According to officials, the arrested were instrumental in smuggling in large quantity of gold through the domestic bay of the airport. “These persons were involved in the racket for nearly a year and are estimated to have smuggled around 100 kg of gold into the State, much higher than the total quantity (82.23 kg) that we had seized last fiscal’’, sources said.
