KOCHI: Gold smuggling case accused Sarith has revealed UAE consulate attache Rashid Khamis was well aware of the smuggling attempt made through diplomatic channel. It was with him that he reached the Thiruvananthapuram airport two times to receive the baggage that was withheld by Customs Assistant Commissioner Ramamoorthy.

As soon as the smuggling was caught, Rashid passed the buck to Sarith and another accused Swapna Suresh and tried to escape. Rashed also called both several times after the baggage was withheld at the airport, according to Sarith.

“He knows everything. We never thought we would be caught as we had the support of Rashid. The money is sent to Dubai through hawala deal and the gold is smuggled to Thiruvananthapuram. The UAE consulate general, who returned to UAE earlier, also knows everything about the deal.

Till date, Rs 70 crore were amassed through gold smuggling. The smuggling was helmed by Rameez, Jalal, Amjad Ali and Sandeep Nair, who are in NIA custody now.

Jalal had also made agreements with certain jewelry shops to sell gold. After each smuggling, Swapna and Sarith got more than Rs five lakh.

Jalal took money from several persons, citing diplomatic immunity. Over a month, the gold came out through diplomatic channel more than ten times. To smuggle 30 kg gold in the last attempt, he collected Rs 9 crore,” he explained.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, police arrested three jewelers who had spent money for smuggling gold. They are Malappuram natives T M Muhammad Anwar(43), E Said Alvi (60) and T M Shamju (40, Kozhikode). They were later produced in the court and remanded.