Over 20 hawala gangs were involved in gold smuggling racket: Customs

The hawala network had a deep-entrenched link to the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling racket that was busted on July 5 when 30 kg of gold was seized at the Trivandrum International Airport.

Over 20 hawala gangs were involved in the smuggling operations that went on for over a year, the Customs Department’s investigations have revealed.

Of the 13 people arrested so far in the case, all except P S Sarith Kumar, the former PRO of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram and the first accused in the case, had either direct or indirect hawala connections, Customs officials said.

Also, they sold the smuggled gold either themselves or through intermediaries, according to the statements of the arrested. But most of the gold was sold outside Kerala.

After the gold brought through one smuggling operation was sold, they would raise money from their own links for the next operation and send the amount to Faisal Fareed in Dubai. Each of the 12 arrested with hawala connections put crores of rupees in the smuggling operations, the investigators said.

They could have collected money from other hawala operators as well and the number of hawala gangs that were involved in the smuggling racket could be over 20, Customs officials said.

They said Sandeep Nair would hand over the smuggled gold he obtained from Sarith Kumar to K T Ramees, a Malappuram native currently in the custody of the Customs department. Ramees would distribute it to P T Abdu, Muhammad Shafi, Edakandan Saithalavi and Jalaal Muhammed of Muvattupuza.

The four would then share the gold with the hawala operators, including those arrested.

Customs officials have been able to determine where all of them except P T Abdu distributed the gold. They still have no clue about the 78 kg gold that was sold through Abdu.

Rs 14 lakh in bag

The Customs Department has recovered Rs 14 lakh from a bag they had seized from P S Sarith’s Thiruvananthapuram home.

Officials said Swapna had handed over the bag to Sarith just before she had fled to Bengaluru.

Swapna, along with Sandeep Nair, were on the run since July 5 — the day Customs officials at Trivandrum Airport seized the 30 kg gold in a diplomatic baggage. They were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Bengaluru on July 11.