Chennai Airport Staff Among 5 Held as DRI Bust Gold Smuggling Ring

Chennai:A smuggling racket at the Chennai airport, with the assistance of three staff members, was busted on Monday by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), who trapped and arrested the offenders. Three airport personnel have been aiding the smuggling operations by substituting X-ray reports of normal passengers with that of the smugglers, who concealed gold inside the body.

The DRI officials received information that airport staff in charge of the X-ray department have been aiding the smugglers by not taking proper X-rays and submitting the X-ray reports of normal passengers to the officials so that real smugglers who conceal gold inside their body could escape with the smuggled goods.

The officials monitored two Sri Lankan passengers who arrived from Dubai through Sri Lanka. The officials checked their belongings but found nothing. Suspecting that they could have concealed the booty inside their bodies, the officials asked havildars to take the two passengers for X-ray again. The havildars did not take any X-ray but brought the X-ray sheets of normal persons taken earlier. The DRI officials who were watching the incident took the havildars and the suspected smugglers to the X-ray department. The officials themselves took the X-ray which showed gold hidden in the body.

Gold weighing 2.6 kilograms worth Rs 4 crore was seized and five persons including the two havildars and a man working at the X-ray department along with the smugglers were arrested. The officials are investigating how much gold was smuggled in a similar manner in the past and the persons involved in the operations.