The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday arrested a senior Customs official on the charge of having abetted the smuggling of large amounts of gold through the international airport here early this year.
Officials privy to the detention identified the suspect as B. Radhakrishnan, former Superintendent, Customs Air Intelligence Unit, Thiruvananthapuram.
They said the DRI held him on COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities) Act charges as he left the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Kochi. The CBI is probing the anti-corruption angle in the case.
The CBI case was that gold smugglers could successfully run the gauntlet of various agencies at the airport for long because they had at least one pliant officer at all times at the X-ray scanning machine operated by the Customs Department to detect contraband, firearms, narcotic drugs and explosives. The agency said Mr. Radhakrishnan “would be present near the X-ray point at the Customs Arrival Hall” to help carriers ferrying contraband gold “come out without detection” by other enforcers.
