DRI arrest 3 including airport staff; 2kg gold balls thrown from arrival to departure terminal

CHENNAI: The DRI has detected a new modus operandi by gold smugglers – throw gold paste balls over a 12-feet-tall glass wall that separates the arrival and departure terminals at the Chennai airport.

On Friday, the DRI seized gold worth Rs 1.75 crore and arrested three persons, including an airport ground staff, on Friday.

The officers caught the smugglers after they saw one of them throwing five balls of gold from the arrival terminal side of the glass wall to the departure terminal.

After receiving a tip-off that gold in huge quantities was being smuggled to Chennai from Dubai via Sri Lanka, DRI officers were monitoring passengers who arrived from Dubai. They closely monitored a 28-year-old male passenger, who was found standing near the glass wall for a long time.

At the departure terminal, another passenger who was about to board the flight to Sri Lanka approached the glass wall. The passenger who had been waiting in the arrival terminal soon threw the gold balls to the departure side. The passenger there caught the ball and handed it to a ground staff who was waiting a few meters away.

The DRI officers who were watching the whole act caught the three men and took them to the customs room for inquiry. An inspection of the balls revealed gold weighing about 2.2 kg, worth Rs 1.75 crore.

Further inquiry revealed that the ground staff was about to hand over the gold to another person who was waiting in the parking area.

All three men have been arrested and remanded in judicial custody. A search is on to nab two others involved.

The ground staff and one of the arrested passengers were engaged and their wedding fixed for next month. They agreed to act as ‘kuruvis’ in order to meet the wedding expenses, sources said.