Airport cargo theft cracked, 4 nabbed

Chennai: The suburban police on Wednesday arrested four persons, including two airport cargo workers, and recovered 92 laptops and seized Rs 47 lakh cash. The gang had stolen six pallets containing 314 laptops from 13 pallets imported by Hewlet Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd (HP) two months ago through air cargo. The gang moved the pallets one by one from the AAI godown and sold the laptops to six electronic outlets for Rs 14,000 to Rs 21,000 per laptop.
The arrested are R Janakiraman, (30) and M Ezhil (31), working as contract labourers at AAI cargo, and Appu (22) and Chelladurai (52), former employees of airport cargo. "They had told the electronic shops that they got the laptops from an auction at the godown."
During the clearing process, the customs broker found that the six pallets were missing. Based on a complaint given by R Venkateswaran, operating manager, HP (India), suburban police registered a case on March 25, and the police commissioner transferred the case to the Central Crime Branch next day. Five special teams headed by CCB Team I Assistant Commissioner P Rajendran were formed to investigate the case.
05/04/11 Mahalingam Ponnusamy/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2011