KOCHI: S A S Navaz, Deputy Commissioner of Customs at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), retired from service on August 31, after 37 years of service.
Navaz, who started working at the Cochin International Airport in September 2013, was in-charge of the Air Cargo Complex, Air Intelligence Unit and Air Customs Administration.
Navaz joined Customs as a preventive officer in 1977. He spent most of his career at the Commissionerate of Customs at Custom House, Willingdon Island.
He has also served as Intelligence Officer at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport from 1986 to 1990, and as assistant commissioner of Service Tax in Bangalore, from 2005 to 2009.
During his tenure at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, he led operations that resulted in the seizure of narcotics worth Rs 22.6 crore, gold worth more than Rs 6 crore and electronic goods worth Rs 4 crore. During his service at the Cochin Airport, he has been directly responsible for the seizure of 95 kg of gold in 160 cases. The total value of gold seized comes to around Rs 25 crore. As many as 37 persons were arrested, and four persons were detained under COFEPOSA during the one year of service.
The value of gold, narcotics and electronic goods seized during his career is Rs 31 crore, Rs 22.6 crore and Rs 4.72 crore, respectively.
Navaz has represented India at the World Veteran’s Table Tennis Championships held at Lillehammer, Norway, in 1996; at Manchester, England, in 1998; at Vancouver, Canada, in 2000; at Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2002, at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2008; and at Auckland, New Zealand, in 2014.
Navaz is president of the Kerala Table Tennis Association. He is also an associate vice-president of the Table Tennis Federation of India, and Joint secretary of the Indian Veteran’s Table Tennis Association.