Kozhikode: Gold smuggling through airports continue unabated despite heightened vigil, and links of rackets with flight crew and Customs personnel have come to light in several cases. A flight attendant who was arrested the other day at the Calicut International Airport for gold smuggling told his interrogators that he has done so six times earlier.
The Customs had nabbed Air India Express cabin crew Navneet Sigh with 1.25kg gold on Wednesday.
Gold, worth Rs 4.5 crore, was being smuggled by concealing it in the shoes, as per the Customs statement.
The gold smuggling gang would leave the gold in the washroom of the plane and Navneet is tasked with smuggling it out after hiding it in the shoe.
Navneet said that he got Rs 3 lakh each time. He also said that a Malappuram-based gold smuggling gang was behind this.
Calicut airport authorities at Karipur had caught two flight attendants smuggling gold two months earlier too.