Haul in excess of Rs 57 million:

Sleuths seize gold, foreign currency

Rasika Somarathna

Customs sleuths seized gold and foreign currency worth of over Rs.57 million at the Katunayake airport yesterday which were to be smuggled out of the country via a flight bound to Dubai.

A foreign national and three locals working for a catering establishment has been arrested in this connection. Several others involved in the smuggling bid are to be arrested shortly, a senior Customs official said.

According to Customs sources around five kgs of gold and the currency had been transported to the flight via a vehicle belonging to a local catering establishment which was providing food to airlines.

The local suspects involved had planned to handover both the gold and the currency to a foreign national after boarding the flight Customs sources said.

The flight was to leave for Dubai around 1.30 am.

A senior customs official yesterday said that they believed that the smuggling of gold and cash in this manner had been going on for some time with several locals and foreigners involved in the matter.

He said that investigations were continuing and the arrests of several others in this connection were imminent.