Kochi: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials seized 11 kilograms of gold worth Rs three crores from three passengers who arrived by an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur at the Cochin International airport on Friday morning.
The trio, all natives of Karnataka, was nabbed following a tip-off that gold in huge quantity would be smuggled through the airport.
“Following this, we’ve deployed officers to inspect every suspicious-looking person. We found the trio rushing through the green channel and soon checked their hand
baggage. A small quantity of gold was recovered. On thorough checking, we seized gold bars hidden at the waists,” said an officer.
The arrested were acting as carriers for gold smuggling rackets. Usually, the enforcement officials hunt for contraband items from suspicious passengers arriving from Gulf countries.
“We inspected the passengers following the tip off. The smugglers might have thought the passengers from Malaysia would be spared and hence sent the huge quantity. We’re interrogating
the accused to get information about the racket,” he said.
DRI officials suspect that the gold was brought to sell to gold jewelers in the southern states.
The accused were produced at the residence of Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (Economic Offense) and were remanded.
