By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Gold smuggling through the Trivandrum International Airport has seen a quantum jump with the Customs officials seizing around 28.15 kg gold in the first six months of the current fiscal. The Customs have also registered 55 cases in connection with the seizure of Rs 8.89-crore worth gold during this period. In 2018-19 fiscal, 19.74 kg gold worth Rs 5.81 crore in 2018-19 fiscal was seized with over 48 cases registered. In short, the seizure in the first six months of the current fiscal has surpassed the entire seizure of the last fiscal, said Customs officials. Meanwhile, the Customs has made a record seizure of over 275 kg of gold in the first seven months of the current fiscal in the state, the highest in the history of Customs. As on September 30, it has crossed its previous record of gold seizure by seizing 150.479 kg gold worth Rs 43.28 crore in six months, against the previous record of 101.209 kg of gold worth Rs 27.73 crore during the same period in the previous fiscal. The Customs also solicited the cooperation of the public to strike at the root of smuggling syndicates. Last year, the Customs distributed Rs 19 lakh as a reward to the informers and this fiscal, it has distributed around Rs 19.89 lakh to 30 informers who tipped off the customs. The department is giving a reward of Rs 1.5 lakh to informers for providing information to detect one kg of gold and 50 per cent of the reward would be given as advance, the official said.

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