Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Customs duties cut, but smuggling continues

The use of couriers to smuggle in precious goods and even drugs still continues, says L. Srikrishna

Seven days ago, a 24-year-old youth who landed at the Anna International Airport was reported "missing".

Police investigation revealed that the young man, who was returning home, was used as a "courier" (or "carriers," as they are locally known), by a person in Singapore.

The young man had been handed a packet containing 350 gm of gold for handing over to a contact at the Chennai airport. However, when he did so, the contact claimed that the packet contained only 190 gm of gold. The contact allegedly whisked the youth off to an undisclosed destination to recover the missing gold. The long arm of the law caught up with the offenders after the youth's father made a complaint.

The episode illustrates a phenomenon that has been around for years: the use of third parties, often genuine travellers, to transport goods and contraband.

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior police officer said that though the Centre had cut customs duties to a great extent on most goods, "carriers" were still used by smugglers.

Apart from carrying expensive liquor bottles, precious jewellery, CDs and electronic gadgets, the couriers are also used to smuggle drugs.

The couriers generally travel on the Indo-Sri Lanka, Indo-Maldives, Indo-Middle East and Indo-South East Asia sectors carrying all kinds of goods. When it comes to banned goods like heroin or other narcotic substances, the rate demanded by the "carriers" is high.

Not only is the element of risk high, but once they are profiled by the authorities as a drug courier, their usefulness comes to an end; and detention under the NDPS Act means long years in jail. If a carrier has never been questioned or stopped by the custodians of law, it reflects well on his/her ability to handle any goods and the rate goes up.

The business of "carriers" (also known as kuruvi in local parlance) operates on the basis of faith and trust, but it can break down some times as the reports of the kidnap of the youth above show.

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