Kozhikode: Soofiyan, one of the prime accused in the Karipur gold smuggling case, has been taken into custody by the police.
He was allegedly responsible for managing the Koduvally gang. The Koduvally native is being questioned at the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police in Kondotty.
A probe had commenced into the smuggling bid after the death of five persons at Ramanattukara in Kozhikode district in a road accident on June 21. The accident occurred while three gangs had departed from the airport soon after the Customs arrested a carrier named Mohammad Shafeeq with 2.33 kilograms of smuggled gold.
Soofiyan had visited the site of accident in Ramanattukara. He is an accused in several gold smuggling cases.
Other accused who were arrested soon after the accident have given told the police that a gang from Kannur was also after the gold, apart from the Koduvally and Cherpulassery gangs.The Cherpulassery gang was following the gang led by Kannur native Arjun till Ramanattukara. The police stated that the 15-member Cherpulassery gang had arrived to provide protection to the Koduvally gang. The police claimed that the Cherpulassery gang had come to loot the gold meant for the Koduvally gang.
As reported earlier the investigation into the gold smuggling rackets revealed that agents brought gold from Dubai and passed them on to carriers, who represented the smugglers. A Dubai gang often turned double agents, and tipped off the robbers about the carriers arriving in India with the gold.
