KOCHI: Though the racket that smuggled gold using the diplomatic baggage was successful in their 20 attempts, airport authorities in Dubai were suspicious about the frequent movement of diplomatic cargo to Thiruvananthapuram. This was revealed by mastermind KT Rameez to the customs after his arrest.
Rameez’s statement included in the report filed to invoke COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act) substantiates how they planned the use of the diplomatic channel for gold smuggling and executed it. According to Rameez, the first consignment came in October 2019 after two pieces of test baggage were sent in July 2019. It was co-accused Sandeep Nair who told him about the safe route to smuggle gold via Thiruvananthapuram airport.
The authorisation letter signed by the UAE consul-general for sending diplomatic baggage was addressed to a Kolkata native, Muhammad, who was not aware that there was gold inside the cargo. Initially, 5kg of gold each was sent on five occasions after which gold bars were concealed inside water purifiers and sent as diplomatic cargo.
“On the fifth occasion, since the cargo section officials in Dubai grew suspicious, the consignment was returned. Thereafter, the consignment was not sent in the name of Muhammad and the authorisation for sending cargo was given to an Arab man named Dawood,” the report stated.
According to customs officials, Dawood was aware that the accused persons were smuggling gold in the consignment sent in his name and he used to hand over the consignment at the Dubai airport’s cargo section. “The first four consignments were sent by Muhammad. Later, Dawood sent consignments 14 times. However, Dawood was replaced by a person named Hashim, who is also a UAE citizen, subsequently to sent the consignments. The last two consignments were sent by Keralite Faisal Fareed of which one, which contained 30kg of gold, was seized by the customs,” a customs source said.
Similarly, they were sending gold bars concealed inside water purifiers and microwave ovens initially. “It was from February that they started moulding the gold and concealing it inside door panels and metal pipes which were sent via the diplomatic baggage. For this purpose, Rameez had travelled to Dubai in February and stayed there for two weeks,” the source said.