An air passenger was arrested for attempting to conceal 40 grams of smuggled gold in his N-95 mask in Kerala. The incident took place at the Kozhikode International Airport located in Karipur and the passenger who had flown in from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit of the Calicut airport. According to reports, the smuggled gold worth Rs 2 lakh was retrieved from the passenger who is a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka and had flown into Kozhikode from Dubai.
Covid-19 innovations. Air Intelligence Unit , Calicut, has nabbed a passenger who had concealed 40 grams gold inside his N-95 face mask pic.twitter.com/9f2MKgIuMh
— bhavatosh singh (@bhavatoshsingh) September 29, 2020
Incidents of gold smuggling have been regularly reported from Calicut and Thiruvananthapuram International airports. In early September, another passenger who had flown in from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Karipur, was caught by the Air Intelligence Unit for smuggling gold worth more than 30 lakhs. The smuggled gold was concealed inside a pressure cooker.
In September, over 1 kg of gold was seized by the Customs department in the Karipur airport within a span of two days. The gold was seized in two different incidents from passengers who arrived in two separate flights. The Commissionerate of Customs (Preventive), Kochi, informed that the Air Intelligence Unit had seized 653 grams of gold and 10,000 cigarettes from our passengers at the time.
While 325 grams of gold was seized from one passenger who flew Singapore Airlines from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, the other three passengers who were arrested had been carrying 10,000 cigarettes, 207 grams of gold and 121 grams of gold respectively. They had flown in from Dubai.
The three passengers who had flown in from Dubai had hidden the gold inside a speaker and the wheels of a trolley bag.
Kerala’s ruling party was thrown into a controversy after a high profile case of gold smuggling was exposed amid the pandemic when a diplomatic baggage sent from the UAE was found to have smuggling gold. Several key persons including Minority Affairs minister KT Jaleel were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency for their alleged links to the case. Jaleel was probed about his links with Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram and one of the main accused in the case.