Dramatic scene at Chennai International airport as smugglers make unexpected escape

According to media reports, a gang helped smugglers to escape the Chennai airport, who were taken custody by the DRI officials at the international terminals on Wednesday. The incident occurred soon after the DRI officials took custody of the smugglers. As per the initial reports, the DRI team had intercepted 13 passengers who arrived from various countries including Dubai, Colombo and Malaysia after they were cleared by customs officials.

When the DRI team carried out checks, they found bars of gold and electronic items worth lakhs of rupees. Though the passengers initially had a tussle with the DRI officials during questioning, they later confessed to smuggling with the help of customs officials.

As the DRI officials tried to escort the passengers to the bus for further enquiry, a group of 50 men from appeared all of a sudden and attacked the officials, helping the smugglers flee the scene. As per media reports, the mob allegedly accosted the officials and started verbally abusing them. During the chaos, two DRI officers were injured.

Following the incident, DRI officials had issued a press release stating that among the detained officials, two were from the air intelligence unit of the Customs, one Superintendent and an Assistant Commissioner. “They are being interrogated and senior officials from Customs and DRI have been camping at the airport ever since the crackdown,” one of the sources said. The possibility of at least two Customs officials being arrested is very high, the sources said.

Media reports also suggested that DRI conducted searches on the premises of a tax assistant in Kolathur. The DRI said that an assistant officer had recently quit his job in the department and might have helped in coordinating with the smugglers. However, on Thursday, 13 out of the 18 smugglers appeared in front of the DRI office for inquiry.

Meanwhile, the Chennai airport Customs has recorded 67% increase in booking of cases for attempted smuggling and 63% in value of seized articles in 2019 compared to 2018. The value of the total seizure of smuggled items was Rs 140 crore in 2019 compared to Rs 85 crore the previous year.