KOCHI: The probe into the Kochi-based gold smuggling racket that operated with an Irish carrier seems to have hit a roadblock owing to delay in nabbing Nibu Mathew, a Kaloor native.
According to officials, Nibu has gone into hiding since the arrest of Edwin Andrews of Ireland with 10 Kg of gold at the airport. “We received information about Nibu, who linked up the racket with its clients, from a statement by Edwin’’, said an official with the Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch of Customs.
Initial investigations revealed that Edwin had come to Kochi on business visas for about ten occasions over the past couple of years. “After checking in a city hotel, he would contact Nibu over phone and handover the contraband’’, he added.
Nibu had escaped to a hide-out in Bengaluru soon after Edwin’s arrest and later shifted his location to Mysuru. However, he landed in the custody of Karanataka Crime Branch along with his friend, an accused in red-sander smuggling.
By the time the Customs traced him, Nibu had already escaped the custody and returned to Kerala with the help of his friends. “We suspect him to be currently in a shelter arranged by his own clients in Kerala’’, officials said.
Edwin was arrested at the Cochin international Airport on July 14. The gold, valued approximately at Rs 2.50 crores, was kept in the form of gold bars.
