Kochi: The Enforcement Directorate will probe if the 30kg gold that was seized from a diplomatic baggage in Thiruvananthapuram was meant to be used as metal currency.
With the hawala network disrupted amid the COVID-19 lockdown, the rackets are using gold to pay for illegal transactions, as per the information received by the ED. The officers have received an intelligence report that gold, instead of money, was given in the real estate and film sectors.
The French police, that had arrived in Kochi last year as part of the probe into the Paris terror attack, had informed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that gold was used as metal currency by the terrorists.
ASP A P Shoukath Ali, who was part of the team that visited Paris along with the French police, had questioned gold smuggling case accused P S Sarith on Saturday.
The Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) will also question Sarith.
The Customs had seized gold, worth Rs 13.5 crore, from a diplomatic baggage in Thiruvananthapuram last week.
There is a difference in smuggling gold for making ornaments by evading tax and the gold is smuggled to be used as currency.
The price of the gold has to be given to the racket when it is smuggled for making jewellery. However, when gold is smuggled to be used as metal currency, then the money is not given to the racket. Instead, the racket will seek certain ‘services’.
Drug mafia
Colombian drug mafia started the practice of giving gold as payment for traffickers in Asia. The mafia found it profitable to give gold bars instead of dollars. These gold bars were smuggled from the mines in Africa and South America. The metal currency then became the preferred form of transaction among the drug traffickers.
