New sea route for smuggling gold exposed: Gulf to India, via Sri Lanka

The falling value of gold does not seem to deter smugglers in the Sub-Continent.

A sea route between northern Sri Lanka and India’s Tamil Nadu Nagapattinam district, used before the Sri Lankan Tamil civil war ended in 2009, is now being used to smuggle gold bars from the Middle East.

According to a report ‘Times of India’, four associates of Lankan crime kingpin, Arivalagan alias Arivu, were arrested with more than 200 gold bars last week.

The men arrested revealed that they were using a sea route between northern Sri Lanka and Kodikkarai in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district.

Because of its proximity to Talaimannar on the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka, Kodikkarai, a low headland on the Coromandel Coast, is an easy  landing point for smugglers.

“We have also established that two smuggling cartels are bringing in gold from the Middle East. The investigation now points to a money laundering unit in Chennai,” a police official was quoted as saying.

The suspects also revealed that a Sri Lankan national had been smuggling gold into Tamil Nadu 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.

The gold bars, after the drop-off, were loaded on two SUVs that took different routes to Chennai on June 15 morning, one via East Coast road and the other took Tiruvarur route.

The smugglers were followed by four teams for more than three hours and arrested after a chase.
 

Warrant out for Cardiff Cricket Ground invader

A warrant has been issued by the Colombo Magistrate Ghana Pilapitiya, through Interpol, for the arrest a man who rushed onto the Cardiff Cricket Ground in England, during the semifinal between India – Sri Lanka.

The match in progress on July 20 was part of in the ICC Champions Trophy Cricket Tournament, the ‘Daily Mirror’ reported.

The suspect, a former resident of Velvettiturai in Jaffna, and a British citizen, upon the request of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), faces a ‘red corner’ notice possibly being against him.

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