THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Customs officials are cracking down on big guns who have misused the diplomatic protection of the UAE consulate to smuggle black money into the Middle East to invest in business. Customs, which has been collecting information from high-ranking officials, including political figures with investments in the Middle East, is preparing for interrogation. The agency's follow-up moves could lead to political turmoil.

The names of top guns were revealed by Swapna in the continuation of the probe into smuggling bribe amount of Rs 1.40 lakh into $190K by Egyptian citizen Khalid, a former accountant at the UAE consulate, in the Life Mission deal. Customs says their statements are credible because the dollar smuggling had the accompaniment of Sarith and Swapna. Swapna testified before the magistrate that the dollar was smuggled for some high-profile people in Kerala.

Following the information that Speaker P Sreeamakrishnan had invested at a college in Muscat, Customs questioned college owner Lazeer Mohammad, dean Dr Kiran and the speaker's friend Nas Abdullah. It was found that the SIM card in Nasser's name was used by the Speaker and the accused were contacted. This will be crucial in the investigation. The customs move is to question the speaker after obtaining central approval.

Customs wants to know:

1) Whose money was smuggled?

2) What is the source of money?

3) How did you turned that much money into dollars?

4) To whom was the money transferred abroad?

5) Where is this money invested?