KOCHI: In a major development, Faisal P A of Muvattupuzha, one of the key members of the Muvattupuzha-based gold smuggling racket which smuggled nearly 2,000 kg of gold from 2013-2015 through CIAL Nedumbassery was arrested again by DRI on Saturday. DRI team received concrete evidence about his involvement in a recent gold seizure case in which a Customs havildar was arrested from the Cochin International Airport early this month.
So far, DRI has arrested six persons in the case. “We are tracing more persons who have arranged carriers for the smuggling activities. Some are under our surveillance. The decision to take Faisal and others to custody for further interrogation would be taken later. We have to ascertain the number of times, the accused have smuggled gold in last one year,” an officer said.
“It was on March 2, we had arrested Customs havildar Sunil Francis and a carrier for smuggling out 3 kg of gold. Following the arrest, our team was working on the racket which brought in gold with the help of Sunil Francis. We received concrete evidence about the involvement of Faisal who is the kingpin of the racket. Following this, we were monitoring his activities. Faisal and two others, Aslam, another Muvattupuzha native and Pratheesh, Kozhikode who assisted in smuggling activities were arrested on Saturday. They have been remanded to judicial custody,” sources said.
The DRI probe into the Nedumbassery gold smuggling case has revealed that Muvattupuzha based racket restarted smuggling activities in November 2018. “Faisal’s racket started smuggling gold through CIAL with the help of Customs havildar Sunil Francis since November. We suspect that the gang has successfully smuggled out gold with the help of the Customs officer. We suspect that close to 50 kg of gold has been smuggled by the rackets since returning to smuggling activities after 2015,” the sources said.Officials suspect that the racket after restarting carried out over 30 gold smuggling attempts within three months.
According to the sources, it was in May 2018, P A Faisal was released from jail after serving preventive detention imposed by Customs under COFEPOSA. The gang sent money to Dubai through hawala channel to procure gold. They lured financially poor persons to act as carriers.
DRI has started attempts to trace out the persons who assisted Faisal in sending money abroad through hawala networks. “Even though Faisal’s properties and bank accounts were frozen after 2015 gold smuggling case by Customs, he managed to get the money and re-start the smuggling operations. The gang restored the hawala network that was active till 2015. We have also started attempts to trace out the persons supporting the racket in Dubai who were receiving money sent through hawala from Kerala,” he said.
The customs officers are surprised that Muvattupuzha racket reviving its operations as they put all the kingpins behind the bar. “It is quite a surprise that the racket has rejuvenated. The racket thrived with the help of officials in the airports. Interestingly, this time the gang hired an official in our department which nailed the group in 2015,” Customs officer said.