IGIA: In times of Corona crisis, smuggling doesn't 'catch the virus'
New Delhi: As the Coronavirus crisis grips the nation, cases of smuggling continue to increase as data from the Customs department showed gold, drugs, gems and foreign currency worth several crores were seized from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). According to the Customs officials, in light of the COVID-19 situation, the smugglers these days are becoming prone to using the Sri Lankan route for illegally bringing illicit goods to India.
According to the data obtained by the Millennium Post, since February 27 gold worth more than Rs 3 crore, foreign currency worth around Rs 1.21 crores and drugs valued at approximately Rs 6.75 crores were seized from smugglers at IGIA. "We also seized commercial goods worth Rs 25.38 lakh, medicines valued at Rs 51.89 lakh and gemstones from the smugglers," a Customs official said. More than 30 people, most of them being foreign nationals, were arrested for these counts of smuggling.
After the COVID-19 outbreak, surveillance was increased at the airport to check passengers coming from Corona-affected countries. According to investigators, in the last week of February they noticed that the movements of passengers from Sri Lanka had started spiking. On February 27, four Sri Lankans were arrested with gold worth Rs 1.41 crores whereas in another case, two Sri Lankan nationals who came to India from Colombo were nabbed at IGIA on February 29.
During the investigation, gold bars worth Rs 14.37 lakh were recovered. "Among the arrested, there were around seven Sri Lankans. We suspect that due to a lower number of COVID-19 cases in the last week of February in Sri Lanka, smugglers may have planned to use the route so that they can easily avoid checking at IGIA," an investigator told this newspaper. Meanwhile, on March 3, Customs officials nabbed one Bolivian national with drugs worth Rs 75 lakh whereas on March 9, one Peruvian national was arrested with cocaine worth Rs 6 crores.
Commissioner Customs Delhi Airport Manish Kumar said: "Indian Customs is playing a crucial role of safeguarding the economic frontiers by keeping a track on smuggling as well as exercising all precautions as mandated by the guidelines due to threat from COVID-19 in order to safeguard the health of officers concerned. All staff members have been strictly advised to keep a vigil on smuggling as well as help those in needs during these tough times."
The Customs department has also taken precautionary steps to tackle Coronavirus as they have created a separate Green Channel/Red Channel area for passengers arriving from Corona-affected nations. Customs had also barred passengers arriving from 15 nations from entering the duty-free shopping area at the Delhi airport. Chief Commissioner Customs Alok Tewari took two COVID-19 reviews of Airport on March 8 and March 17. Meanwhile, all officers have been directed to mandatorily wear masks, gloves and use sanitisers while processing passengers and goods. Additionally, all frontline officers having passenger interactions have been directed to wear headcovers, goggles, gloves and full-sleeves outfits.
