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The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have been on a gold hunt in the Palk Strait after smugglers from Sri Lanka threw the contraband into the sea on spotting a patrol boat. After two days of underwater searches, Coast Guard divers retrieved 11.6 kg of gold on Thursday from the seabed near Mandapam.
The action started on Tuesday after DRI got a tip about gold being smuggled across the Gulf of Mannar. Joint teams of the DRI and Coast Guard kept a watch on fishing boats near the international maritime boundary line and zeroed in on an unregistered country boat. The team saw three men throw some bundles into the sea before trying to escape. The team caught them and deployed divers to search for the bundles.
Based on information from the three men, DRI arrested two others from another boat off Vethalai village, south of Mandapam, and found 21.3 kg of gold on the vessel.
On Thursday morning, the divers surfaced with 11.6 kg of the yellow metal. There were 100 gold biscuits, each weighing 116 gm. Investigators said the markings on the gold biscuits showed Dubai as the country of origin.
“The 21.3kg seized from the other boat appeared to have been melted and made into bars of different sizes by the smugglers,” a source said. Tamil Nadu’s porous 1,076-km coastline — second in length only to Gujarat’s 1,214 km shore — has for long been a favourite of smugglers between India and Sri Lanka since the days of the LTTE. While earlier narcotic substances were smuggled via TN to Lanka, presumably to fund the LTTE, smugglers have been ferrying diesel, beedi leaves, fertilisers and medicines since the economic crisis in the teardrop island nation.
A customs officer said gold smugglers from the Gulf and the Far East have been bringing gold into Tamil Nadu via Lanka through the sea route after airports enhanced screening.
In February this year, smugglers tried to bring in 17.74 kg of gold, but on sighting an interceptor boat threw the gold into the sea.
A Coast Guard statement put the total seizure at 32.869 kg, valued at more than 20 crore. “Indian Coast Guard remains steadfast in its resolve to ensure the Indian coast remains safe and secure at all times,” the statement read.
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The action started on Tuesday after DRI got a tip about gold being smuggled across the Gulf of Mannar. Joint teams of the DRI and Coast Guard kept a watch on fishing boats near the international maritime boundary line and zeroed in on an unregistered country boat. The team saw three men throw some bundles into the sea before trying to escape. The team caught them and deployed divers to search for the bundles.
Based on information from the three men, DRI arrested two others from another boat off Vethalai village, south of Mandapam, and found 21.3 kg of gold on the vessel.
On Thursday morning, the divers surfaced with 11.6 kg of the yellow metal. There were 100 gold biscuits, each weighing 116 gm. Investigators said the markings on the gold biscuits showed Dubai as the country of origin.
“The 21.3kg seized from the other boat appeared to have been melted and made into bars of different sizes by the smugglers,” a source said. Tamil Nadu’s porous 1,076-km coastline — second in length only to Gujarat’s 1,214 km shore — has for long been a favourite of smugglers between India and Sri Lanka since the days of the LTTE. While earlier narcotic substances were smuggled via TN to Lanka, presumably to fund the LTTE, smugglers have been ferrying diesel, beedi leaves, fertilisers and medicines since the economic crisis in the teardrop island nation.
A customs officer said gold smugglers from the Gulf and the Far East have been bringing gold into Tamil Nadu via Lanka through the sea route after airports enhanced screening.
In February this year, smugglers tried to bring in 17.74 kg of gold, but on sighting an interceptor boat threw the gold into the sea.
A Coast Guard statement put the total seizure at 32.869 kg, valued at more than 20 crore. “Indian Coast Guard remains steadfast in its resolve to ensure the Indian coast remains safe and secure at all times,” the statement read.
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