Gold Smuggler's Luck Ends At Chennai Airport

Wednesday, 17th June 2015 at 05:20am

Chennai airport officials have aborted an attempt to smuggle gold bars stashed in an airport loader's bag. The airport security said that a certain airport loader named Immanuel was working his shift when the smuggling attempt took place on or about 5:00 am of June 16.

At around that time, Immanuel was already preparing to leave Chennai airport, bringing with him his work bag. Following airport SOP, a CISF personnel requested Immanuel to present his personal items for checking.

While the airport personnel were checking his belongings, it was discovered that Immanuel had more than 1.5 kg of gold bars stashed in his bag. Consequently, he was turned over to customs officials for questioning.

The said loader was an employee of Aeroglobal, a service provider contracted by SpiceJet for some of its manpower requirements. In the case of Immanuel, he was contracted to help out at the airport tarmac.

The questioning took place on Tuesday and after extensive interrogation, the loader was finally charged for felony.

Customs authorities however refused to talk about the interrogation outcomes but a source revealed that Immanuel served as a messenger for the smuggling operation. He reportedly gets paid for secretly collecting the gold pieces kept in various areas within the aircraft, getting them out of the airport premises, and turning them over to one of his cohorts waiting outside the airport.

Such gold smuggling incidents involving airport personnel isn't new at all. Statistics reveal that for the past 3 years, about 8 smuggling incidents participated in by airport personnel have been recorded. There were also cases wherein drug smuggling was involved.

Authorities are exerting efforts to apprehend those responsible for the smuggling incident.

By: Pete Lee.