Twenty-six passengers due to board a ferry from Kankesanthurai to Nagapattinam in India were detained on Wednesday on suspicion of attempting to smuggle gold, Sri Lanka Customs said.
The group — 17 Indian nationals, three Sri Lankan men and six Sri Lankan women — was stopped on intelligence received before the scheduled departure of ferry service SG423 at the Kankesanthurai port in Jaffna. Two of the passengers were found in possession of gold during initial inspections, Customs said.
All 26 individuals have been referred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for further medical examination as part of the ongoing investigation, a standard procedure where authorities suspect concealment of gold inside the body. Customs officials said inquiries are continuing.
The Kankesanthurai–Nagapattinam ferry, the centrepiece of the revived passenger and cargo connection between northern Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, has been a sensitive enforcement point for Customs since its relaunch given its higher proportion of cross-strait foot passengers compared with international airports. Sri Lanka has periodically seen waves of small-volume gold smuggling targeted at the south Indian retail jewellery market, prompting tighter intelligence-led screening at both Kankesanthurai and Bandaranaike International Airport.
The incident comes a month after the restored ferry service drew domestic political attention over operational reliability, but it is the first significant Customs interdiction publicly disclosed at the Kankesanthurai terminal since the route reopened.
Update — June 19: 30g of gold seized, 520g of liquid gold sample sent for testing
A Customs inquiry into two women detained alongside the group recovered nearly 30 grams of 24-carat gold worth around Rs. 2.8 million, Newswire reported on Friday. Officials said samples of about 520 grams of a substance suspected to be liquid gold, seized from two other suspects, have been sent for laboratory testing. Four more suspects remained under observation at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital pending the expulsion of suspected ingested gold, while 18 passengers were released the previous day after medical examinations confirmed no concealment. Customs said investigations into the remaining suspects are continuing.
