MALAPPURAM
The police arrested three passengers who arrived at the Calicut International Airport at Karipur from Dubai on Friday and seized 2.6 kg of gold compound from them.
The gold compound was found in capsule form hidden in their rectum. District Police Chief Sujit Das S. said that 10 capsules were seized from Jaleel, 25, from Kasaragod; Ramsheed K.P., 23, from Kallai; and Ajmal P.C., 40, from Nadapuram.
The seizure was made by a special police squad outside the airport as part of an enhanced drive by the police against gold smuggling-related dacoity.
Mr. Sujit Das said that nearly two dozen seizures of smuggled-in gold were made by the police in the past three months.
“It is the first time in our history that the police are directly involving in the seizure of gold being smuggled in through our airports. So far, we never had any direct detection,” said Mr. Sujit Das.
He said that his team turned to gold seizure as part of addressing the increased dacoities in Malappuram and neighbouring districts. “A close examination of the dacoity cases that took place in Malappuram in the past 10 years revealed that all of them belonged to either gold or hawala category.”
Meanwhile, the Customs and Enforcement Directorate authorities have strengthened their vigil in Kerala airports against smuggling of gold. The In spite of a shortage of staff for close observation and examination of the passengers, the Customs enhanced vetting of the passengers, prompting many passengers to raise complaints of harassment against the officials.
