Smugglers take pre-war Lanka route
Arun Janardhanan, TNN | Jul 2, 2013
CHENNAI: Arivalagan alias Arivu, the kingpin of a cartel that smuggles gold into the country from Sri Lanka, is on the run, but directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) officials arrested four of his associates with more than 200 gold bars recently.
Officials probing the case say smugglers took a sea route, between northern Sri Lanka and Kodikkarai in Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam district that cartels used before the Lankan war ended in 2009. Kodikkarai, a low headland on the Coromandel coast, was a landing point for smugglers because of its proximity to Talaimannar on the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka.
A senior investigating officer said smugglers had landed at Kodikkaraiseveral times in the recent past. "On one occasion, on May 4, the smugglers landed right under the nose of the coastal security forces that patrol the shoreline round the clock," he said.
"The investigation now points to a money laundering unit in Chennai,"the DRI official said. "We have also established that two gold smuggling cartels that operate out of Chennai have links in Dubai.
A senior official said there has been a major surge in smuggling from Sri Lanka following a lull after hostilities came to an end in the island nation in May 2009.
The suspects revealed that the gold had been smuggled to Kodikkarai by a Sri Lankan national in a fishing boat. "He left the Indian coast after offloading the gold near a nondescript village on the coast near Kodikkarai," the official said.
After the drop-off, the gold bars were loaded on two SUVs that took different routes to Chennai on the morning of June 15 - one via East Coast road and the other one took Tiruvarur route. FourDRI teams followed the smugglers for more than three hours. "But separate teams arrested them after a chase," the officer said.
During interrogation, the smugglers revealed that they had LTTE connections during the war in Sri Lanka. One of them, Kodiakkarai Anandan, 26, a local politician, who was the cartel's point man in Nagapattinam is the son of Shanmugam, who committed suicide during the Rajiv Gandhi assassination probe. Anandan and Karutha Pandian alias Suresh were remanded in judicial custody but were granted bail within a day by a magistrate's court.
Arun Janardhanan, TNN | Jul 2, 2013
Officials probing the case say smugglers took a sea route, between northern Sri Lanka and Kodikkarai in Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam district that cartels used before the Lankan war ended in 2009. Kodikkarai, a low headland on the Coromandel coast, was a landing point for smugglers because of its proximity to Talaimannar on the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka.
A senior investigating officer said smugglers had landed at Kodikkaraiseveral times in the recent past. "On one occasion, on May 4, the smugglers landed right under the nose of the coastal security forces that patrol the shoreline round the clock," he said.
"The investigation now points to a money laundering unit in Chennai,"the DRI official said. "We have also established that two gold smuggling cartels that operate out of Chennai have links in Dubai.
A senior official said there has been a major surge in smuggling from Sri Lanka following a lull after hostilities came to an end in the island nation in May 2009.
The suspects revealed that the gold had been smuggled to Kodikkarai by a Sri Lankan national in a fishing boat. "He left the Indian coast after offloading the gold near a nondescript village on the coast near Kodikkarai," the official said.
After the drop-off, the gold bars were loaded on two SUVs that took different routes to Chennai on the morning of June 15 - one via East Coast road and the other one took Tiruvarur route. FourDRI teams followed the smugglers for more than three hours. "But separate teams arrested them after a chase," the officer said.
During interrogation, the smugglers revealed that they had LTTE connections during the war in Sri Lanka. One of them, Kodiakkarai Anandan, 26, a local politician, who was the cartel's point man in Nagapattinam is the son of Shanmugam, who committed suicide during the Rajiv Gandhi assassination probe. Anandan and Karutha Pandian alias Suresh were remanded in judicial custody but were granted bail within a day by a magistrate's court.
