After a hot chase on the high seas off Hare island in the Gulf of Mannar, a special team of Rameswaram Customs Preventive Unit (CPU) has seized four kg of gold biscuits smuggled from Sri Lanka even as two smugglers managed to escape.

Acting on specific intelligence and under the supervision of D.F. Zavier Raja, Assistant Commissioner, Ramanathapuram Customs Division, the team, headed by Jothi Mani, Superintendent of Customs, sailed to the islet on Thursday afternoon and seized the contraband – 40 pieces of gold biscuits with foreign markings, each weighing 100 gm, concealed in a water can.

Displaying the seized gold biscuits to reporters in Rameswaram, Mr. Raja said the four-member team, in a bid to intercept the boat of the smugglers, signalled them to stop. Since the smugglers – two on board the boat – did not stop, the officials showed firearms, threatening to open fire. But the duo threw the can into the sea and sailed fast, he said.

The officials retrieved the can from the shallow waters. The smugglers sailed towards Pamban or Mandapam shore and escaped, he said.

The CPU had registered a case and investigating.

The smugglers were returning to the shore after receiving the gold biscuits from their contact from Sri Lankan in the mid sea, when the customs officials confronted them, he said. The 22 carat gold biscuits were valued at Rs. 1.16 crore, he said.

This was the third seizure of smuggled gold in this region since January. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized 16.032 kg of gold bars after intercepting a courier van at RS Mangalam near here on March 27.

In another operation on January 1, DRI officials had seized 8.7 kg of smuggled gold bars at Uchipuli railway gate near here.

Source: The Hindu

-Agencies