17 Kg Of Gold Recovered By The Indian Coast Guard In Tamil Nadu

On February 9, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Indian Coast Guard found 17.74 kg of gold along the Tamil Nadu coast. Three people are suspected of dumping this 10.5 crore worth of gold near Mandapam, which they smuggled on a boat from Sri Lanka.

Earlier, the DRI had been tipped off about this smuggling, and the coast guard had closely watched the Gulf of Munnar since February 7. It was revealed that they knew three people would be collecting the gold in a fishing boat along the Mandapam coast on the high seas, and a Vedhalai/Mandapam gang was behind this.

Gold Smuggling from Sri Lanka — Source: Indian Coast Guard/ Twitter

Based on that, they tried to catch a suspicious boat on February 8 night, which tried to flee and was ultimately nabbed by the team. However, the team discovered nothing from the boat and speculated that the goods were thrown into the sea.

They interrogated three suspects and sent divers to look for the contraband. However, the operation wasn’t successful on Wednesday, and they started afresh on Thursday with divers from Thoothukudi who recovered the contraband yesterday.

14 packages of gold were found, including sticks, chains and bars, tied by a towel. The boat and three suspects are now under the custody of Coast Security Group.

References: The Hindu, India Shipping News