Revenue intelligence officers have recovered a gold consignment of 17.74 kg worth Rs 10.1 crore from the seabed near Mandapam coast after it was thrown by smugglers into the sea. Three persons were apprehended for smuggling the consignment from Sri Lanka by sea, officials said. In a statement on Thursday, the officials noted that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Indian Coast Guard intercepted a fishing boat and seized the foreign origin gold. The officials recovered the gold under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. “The gold was hidden in a parcel containing 14 packages of foreign origin gold in various forms - varying sizes of bars, chains and sticks, and tied in a towel. Three persons involved in the said smuggling have been apprehended and being interrogated,” an official statement read. During the interception, the persons in the fishing boat threw the contraband parcel into the sea. The parcel was later retrieved by the officials from the seabed with the help of Coast Guard Divers. The officials said they acted based on a tip-off that a gang based in Mandapam area in Ramanathapuram was planning to smuggle huge quantities of gold from Sri Lanka through a fishing boat. The intelligence unit had also revealed that three persons on the fishing boat planned to collect the gold in the high seas and land at Mandapam coast. Subsequently, the DRI, alongside the Indian Coast guard, planned an operation to capture the smugglers and seize the consignment. “A team of Indian Coast Guard officers and officials from DRI mounted surveillance from the Coast Guard Ship Charlie 432 and the fishing boat was identified in the early hours of February 8. On spotting the fishing boat, rigid inflatable boats from the coast guard ship were deployed and the fishing boat was intercepted after a chase near the Mandapam coast,” the officials said. “With this seizure, DRI, Chennai Zonal Unit, has so far seized 209 kg of foreign-origin gold in this financial year 2022-23. The all India gold seizure by DRI is 950 kg (approx) in this financial year,” the statement added.
