Indian Coast Guard seizes 9.7 kg gold from boat in Gulf of Mannar

The Indian Coast Guard on Friday said it had seized 9.7 kg gold from a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mannar off the Tamil Nadu coast and arrested five persons.

The operation was launched at 10 pm on Thursday along with a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) team onboard a Coast Guard ship and the suspect boat’s movement was closely monitored, the Indian media reported.

The boat was subsequently intercepted and gold seized. A joint investigation is under progress, the Coast Guard said.

Recently, in a joint operation, Indian Coast Guard has stumbled across a major drug consignment from Pakistan in a Sri Lankan boat in the high seas south of Thoothukudi.

A total of 99 packets of heroin, 20 small boxes of synthetic drugs, five 9mm pistols and a Thuraya satellite phone set were found in the empty fuel tank on the boat.