KOCHI: Rackets led by Malayalis smuggle the largest quantity of gold to India through airports. Shocking information has come out after four officials of Bird Worldwide Flight (BWF) Service, a ground-handling agency in Kochi international airport, were arrested on Tuseday.
These people, who operate with a lot of freedom in the airport, are the links of a smuggling racket based in Dubai. The 8 kilos of gold caught by the preventive unit of the Customs two weeks ago was only a tip of the 64 kilos these people smuggled in the past two months.
More than half of the gold smugglers caught in most of the airports in the country are Malayalis. Customs have caught more than 400 kilos of gold from Malayalis in one year at Mumbai, New Delhi and Kochi airports alone. Customs assume that the gold smuggled successfully will be many times more. Gold smugglers are caught when someone betrays them.
Though central agencies have intensified search on receiving confidential information that gold is smuggled in a big way through domestic terminals, only 10 per cent of the gold smuggled through airports in Kerala, including Nedumbassery, is caught.
