KOCHI: The Ernakulam rural police have decided to go the Malappuram police way to curb gold smuggling through the Kochi airport. The plan is to bring areas surrounding the airport, including all main roads, under tight surveillance.
The move comes following an uptick in the smuggling of the yellow metal from the airport and incidents of passengers being abducted by smuggling rackets upon touching down here. “We will bring areas in and around Kochi airport under tight surveillance. Steps will also be taken to monitor all main roads leading to the airport,” Ernakulam rural SP K Karthick told TNIE.
A police officer said personnel would be deployed in mufti on the airport premises to identify suspected carriers, while those in plain clothes would keep a watch on the roads leading to the airport.
Surveillance by the Malappuram police at Karipur airport has yielded results with the officers making a series of seizures of gold that the passengers had smuggled out of the airport without coming under the customs’s radar. The police said they made over a dozen seizures since February, including the ones in which a total of 2.67kg gold was recovered from three passengers who arrived at the Karipur airport.
The police decided to go after gold smuggling rackets after the customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sought coordinated efforts by all agencies following the rise in arrival of carriers with smuggled gold.
“There has been a drastic rise in the arrival of gold carriers. Due to shortage of staff, customs is unable to act on all the inputs it receives,” said a customs officer, adding that the carriers were devising new methods to smuggle gold.