Kochi: With another senior Kochi customs official arrested yesterday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly aiding gold smuggling, the total number of officials arrested in this connection rose to three. Assistant commissioner of customs Anil Kumar was placed under arrest after the CBI had subjected him to intensive interrogation. The events leading to the arrest of the three officials and smuggling gang kingpin Fayas began with a 20kg gold haul at the Kochi airport here in September when two women from Dubai were nabbed with 20 gold bars hidden in their clothes. The arrest of the two women and their interrogation led to arrest of Fayas on September 24. The two other customs officials attached to the Cochin airport and who are in custody are Kochi Customs deputy commissioner C Madhavan and customs preventive officer Sunil Kumar. The CBI probe team found Fayas had links not only with top customs officials but also politicians. Fayas and his associates smuggled more than 50kg gold through the airport here in the past six months, with the alleged connivance of customs officials.
Briton held over drugs bust in Goa
PANAJI : Police in the holiday resort state of Goa yesterday said that they had arrested a British man after their biggest ever drugs seizure, worth Rs20.5m ($330,000). Gary Baird, 45, was arrested on Wednesday for illegally possessing more than 4kg of amphetamine, said police superintendent Karthik Kashyap. “The accused had come to deliver the narcotics to a customer,” he said and added that Baird had visited Goa several times and was staying in a hotel. The Briton was held during the raid in Aguada village, 10km from state capital Panaji, and Kashyap said more arrests were expected in the case. Kashyap said amphetamines were a relatively new phenomenon in the state. “This is the biggest seizure in the history of drug seizures by the Goa police,” he said. Agencies
