Agents of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) boarded a flight from Dubai on Monday and seized two kg of gold bullion they found stashed under a seat of the aircraft.
The DRI also arrested a police officer, Shafir, sub-inspector, Vanchiyoor, who was occupying the adjacent seat in connection with its anti-gold smuggling raid. They also arrested a woman co-passenger allegedly known to the sub-inspector and had travelled with him to Kerala from Dubai.
A DRI investigator said the agency had booked the police officer on the charge of having abetted the smuggling of contraband gold under the provisions of the Customs Act. He said the investigation was at a nascent stage. The DRI was verifying the antecedents of the officer and also his foreign travels, particularly to Dubai. Investigators said the officer had initially disowned the gold. However, he later confessed to having a role in the smuggling ring. DRI agents were questioning him at their office here.
The investigators described the technique as a classic “dead letter box drop (DLB)” gold smuggling operation. (A DLB is an inconspicuous spot where objects are deliberately hidden by one person for his or her collaborator to collect without either of them having to establish direct contact with each other in a manner that might compromise their secrecy.)
The DRI was verifying whether any cabin crew or ground staff were involved in the operation. They were also tracking the provenance of the gold to expose the Dubai end of the operation.
The DRI had anticipated an increase in gold smuggling given the Christmas-New Year shopping season. The duty differential of the precious metal in the country and abroad has made its smuggling lucrative.
Early this year, the DRI had busted a racket that smuggled gold in trade quantities through the international airport here.
The DRI had also exposed a system of shady establishments that turned contraband gold into machine-crafted jewellery and sold them at a relatively lesser rate to big showrooms.
