CHENNAI: Cost Guard officials have recovered 17.74 kg of gold worth over Rs 10 cr that was thrown into the sea by smugglers at Ramanathapuram near Madurai the other day.

Due to the financial crisis in Sri Lanka, there has been an increase in smuggling by sea. It is reported that drugs, tobacco products and clothes are being smuggled. The Indian Coast Guard had received confidential information from the Revenue Intelligence Department that gold was being smuggled from Sri Lanka to the Mandapam coast. Then the Coast Guard along with the joint team of DRI intensified the surveillance in the sea.

The team found a boat in a suspicious manner on Wednesday night. But the crew of the boat threw the gold into the sea off the Mandapam coast so that the gold would not fall into the hands of the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard cordoned off the area and brought in scuba drivers after it was found that gold was dumped in the sea. In the subsequent inspection, gold bars weighing 17.74 kg were found from the bottom of the sea. Nagur Kani, Sagubar Sadiq and Mohammad Sameer, the crew members of the boat, are currently in the custody of the Marine Police for attempting to smuggle gold.