CHENNAI: A particular gate at the Chennai international airport has been identified by enforcement agencies as a “porous” route used by the ground handling staff of the facility to bring out gold, smuggled by carriers into India from abroad.
Gate number 9 at the Pallavaram side of the airport, which is used as the entry and exit point for vehicles of food contractors, fuel suppliers and cleaning staff, is often used by contract employees colluding with smuggling syndicates to bring out the gold, sources in Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs said.
“This was witnessed even last week, when airport toilet cart operator P Deepak and another staff member Petchi Muthu were arrested after they had passed through Gate number 9 with 2.2 kg gold worth Rs 1.5 crore, collected from a transit passenger who landed from Dubai,” authoritative sources said. Both were contracted by the ground handling company, AI Airport Services Ltd.
Sources confirmed this was not an isolated incident and multiple cases of gold smuggling where ground handling staff played a role have followed the same exit route. A recent comprehensive audit of loopholes used by smugglers at the airport by DRI and Customs had also flagged smuggling instances through this gate, stating that staff exiting from this gate were not being frisked properly.
The gate is manned by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel who check vehicles and the staff entering and exiting. A baggage scanner is also provided, but official sources said contract staff working with smugglers managed to hoodwink this system.
An airport official said the security provided at the gate is strong, with at least three staff manning it at any point of time to properly check the vehicle, staff and the baggage scanner.
A senior official from an enforcement agency said there are practical difficulties in detecting gold concealment as many vehicles pass through the gate on a daily basis. “This is the gate through which food meant for all domestic and international flights, some fuel trucks and other vehicles pass through,” the official said.
A possible solution for this would be to install container scanners at the airport for screening such vehicles in quick time, officials said. Another suggestion was to create a special roving squad of security personnel which can move in a vehicle and patrol sensitive locations of the airport. Agencies have also asked airport authorities to restrict the entry and exit of staff to one particular gate.