CHENNAI: Chennai Air Customs busted a gold smuggling racket involving airport housekeeping contract staff and arrested five persons. Working on a tip-off that gold was likely to be smuggled by a passenger arriving from Dubai, Air Intelligence sleuths noticed a janitor going inside the toilet.
He was followed and caught red-handed while he was retrieving two black bundles from a waste bucket. On opening the bundles, three gold paste packets weighing 2 kg were recovered. On extraction, 1.81-kg of gold worth Rs 93.2 lakh was recovered and seized.
The suspect, Sheikhussman (35), a passenger from Tiruchy was intercepted at the exit. The janitor was identified as Gnanasekar (31), employee of Service Master Clean Limited (SMCL), Chennai, which provides housekeeping services at airport.
On questioning he informed that his colleague Shankar told him to collect the bundles on orders from Kumar, his boss, who is working as a supervisor in SMCL. The passenger received a call from someone outside the airport who had come to receive him.
He was taken out and the receiver identified as Syed Ibrahim Shah (21) of Chennai was apprehended. Kumar who was not at the airport was apprehended later. In another case, Etihad Airways flight EY-268 which arrived from Abu Dhabi was rummaged.
Three bundles were recovered from the two toilets. On opening, four gold bars weighing 1-kg each with foreign markings and three rectangular gold plates weighing 5.1-kg worth Rs 2.63 crore were recovered and seized as unclaimed. In total, 6.9-kg gold worth Rs 3.6 crore was seized. A probe is on.