Gold smuggle: Customs raise vigil as airport staff role emerge

Customs officials here have mounted tighter vigilance in the wake of increasing involvement of airport and airlines staff members in gold smuggling cases as evidenced by a rise in the number of such cases.
"The arrests of airlines and airport staff in the past few months gave a clear signal that we are facing threats not only from gold smugglers, who, posing as passengers, illegally carry the yellow metal, but from people working at the airport premises, who have been acting as facilitators or middlemen," said Milind Lanjewar, Additional Commissioner of Customs.
"Our operation should be more meticulous and discreet to unearth the role of the men working within the airport premises. Conducting such operations are more challenging. We have exposed some and sent them behind bars but there may be some more gold smuggling facilitators," he said.

"We are doing our best to crack down on gold smugglers. With more determination, we are making concerted efforts to nab the smugglers and their facilitators. The vigil has been intensified," he added.
What shocked the Customs officials was involvement of senior airport official Kanumetta Jagadish Babu, who was arrested on Friday for allegedly acting as a facilitator of a gold smuggling gang.
"We were stunned when we figured out the role of Babu, a terminal manager with Mumbai airport operator GVK," Lanjewar said.
Babu and his two associates Shahbaaz Khan and Shaikh Mohsin were nabbed on Friday for allegedly trying to smuggle in 14 gold bars worth Rs 39.58 lakh brought from UAE, a Customs official said.