Chennai: The officials of the Central Revenue Intelligence Department arrested 25 flyers including eight women at the Chennai International Airport on November 10 night for smuggling a large cache of gold items.
The officials received confidential information on a large amount of gold being smuggled on flights from Singapore to Chennai. Based on the tip, the personnel secretly engaged in intense surveillance at the airport.
Each flyer of the flights of Scoot Airlines, Air India Express and Indigo, all coming from Singapore, was thoroughly frisked at the airport and 25 of them were asked not to leave the airport premises for further interrogation. Upon checking their baggage, the officials found gold bars, gold paste and gold chains hidden inside. In total 20 kg gold items worth Rs 15 crore in the international market were confiscated from the flyers who belong to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Of this, two passengers had more than one kg of gold and the other 23 passengers had lesser quantities.
Further grilling revealed that some of the passengers were sent by the main smugglers, based out of Chennai, to Singapore as smuggling sparrows to sneak in those precious items. They boarded three different flights to evade the customs check. The officials are investigating if anyone else, including the customs officials at Chennai airport, is involved in the smuggling racket.
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