The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police has issued a Diffusion Notice against five individuals suspected of running gold smuggling racket from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday.

The CIB issued the Diffusion Notice in connection to the January 5 confiscation of 33kg gold, which had passed undetected through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) customs.  

Owing to pending court proceedings regarding the matter the CIB issued the Diffusion Notice instead of the Red Corner Notice through the Interpol, informed SP Kiran Bajracharya, who is overlooking the Interpol Department at the Bureau. “We will issue a red corner notice as soon as the court pronounces the suspects guilty,” said SP Bajracharya.

A  Diffusion Notice is a request for cooperation or alert mechanism used to request the arrest or location of individual or additional information in relation to a police investigation which is circulated to the member countries of their choice, or to the entire Interpol membership.

The Bureau has already arrested 12 of 31 individuals whose names were made public on March 5 in connection to the case. The other 19 suspects have been kept on the absconding list.

The CIB team on January 5 had nabbed Gopal Bahadur Shahi, who had boarded an Air Arabia flight from the UAE. Shahi was caught with 244 gold biscuits, 18 chains and 11 rings after he had made his way out of the airport.