KOCHI: The enhanced information gathering and surveillance activities are paying off for the Customs Air Intelligence Unit as gold seizure at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) doubled in the 2018-19 fiscal. Apart from gold, there is substantial rise in the seizure of foreign currencies, cigarettes and silver. The Customs Department data shows as many as 166.961 kg gold worth Rs 52. 46 crore was seized from CIAL in the just-concluded financial year, with 464 being registered. In 2017-18, the figures were 81.69 kg (worth Rs 23.69 crore) and (219 cases).
“It’s the largest quantity of seizure in a fiscal from CIAL. More than 100 kg of gold were seized till December 2018 alone,” said Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar.“Our unit members at the airport are working round the clock. All baggage and possible space where gold can be concealed are checked. We had approached the airliners, crew and ground-handling staff to enhance intelligence gathering. Informers are rewarded rightly for tipping off our department about possible gold smuggling,” he said.
Foreign currencies
The just-concluded fiscal also marked an increase in attempts to smuggle out foreign currency through CIAL. While only two cases worth Rs 8.85 lakh were registered in 2017-18, the number of cases rose to 17 (worth Rs 16.45 crore) in 2018-19. “Foreign currency is smuggled out as hawala money in return for the gold brought illegally into the state. To prevent it, COFEPOSA was imposed on some of the carriers and they were put in preventive detention,” an officer said.
Other commodities
Smuggling of foreign cigarettes also increased in the last fiscal. As many as 4,64,300 sticks of cigarettes were seized in 46 cases back then. In 2017-18, the number of cases was 17 in which 85,320 sticks were recovered. In 2018-19, five silver seizure cases were registered in which 1.17 kg was recovered. In comparison, 1 kg of silver was seized in 2017-18.