Vizag Airport easy pick for smugglers!

Vishakapatnam Airport is accorded with International Status couple of years ago and the operations in International air space are slowly picking up. However the airport is becoming notorious for Gold smuggling these days. The airport has seen incidences of gold smuggling getting tripled in the last two years after the import duty on the yellow metal is increased.

Vishakapatnam has got air connectivity to Dubai. Smugglers are finding it a favourable destination as it was not a busy airport. Also the frisking and other security checks are not so rigorous in this airport when compared to others in the country.

The smugglers earn a profit of 3 lakh if they succeed in smuggling 1 kg of gold. The smuggled gold later is being transported to other destinations in South India. During the last nine months, the customs officials have seized over 13.5 kgs of gold and arrested 13 persons while attempting to sneak in gold bars.