Police on Friday arrested three Tribhuvan International Airport customs office staffers in connection with the recent gold smuggling case, taking the number of individuals held in the scam to 30.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police arrested customs officer Pushpa Joshi and Nayab Subba (non-gazetted first class officer) duo Kamal Pariyar and Birendra Nepali from Kathmandu, according to Kuber Kadayat, a deputy inspector general who is also the Nepal Police spokesperson.

The involvement of customs officials was revealed during an investigation against customs agents, employees and alleged smugglers caught in July in connection with the smuggling of over 60 kg gold.

“They will be presented before the court in pursuit of a judicial remand on Sunday,” said Kadayat.

The CIB has been interrogating persons who have been named in the case of gold smuggled into the country from Hong Kong hidden in motorcycle brake shoes.

Last Tuesday, the CIB interrogated Dipesh Pun, son of former Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, for his alleged links in smuggling the precious metal. The case came to the fore after the consignment was seized from a taxi outside the TIA.

The CIB has shown Pun’s direct connection with Dawa Tshering, the main suspect in the case.

A team from the Department of Revenue Investigation had arrested Tshering, a Belgian national of Chinese origin, from the Thamel-based Hotel Vienna on July 29 to inquire about his alleged involvement in the gold smuggling case.

Since Tshering’s arrest, several media outlets have reported his connection with Dipesh Pun and pictures showing the two together have widely circulated on social media.

On July 18, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) seized the smuggled gold at Sinamangal, Kathmandu right after it cleared customs at the Tribhuvan International Airport. Later, the DRI handed over the case to the police bureau for further investigation. The gold, packed in eight sealed cartons, was sent to the mint division of the central bank for weighing.

The gross weight of the consignment seized was determined to be 155 kg. The mint division of Nepal Rastra Bank later melted the smuggled gold to separate it from the brake shoes and to ascertain its quantity. The division then weighed the yellow metal to be 60.789kg.

The Hong Kong customs authority has told Nepal’s Customs Department that the smugglers used fake documents in July to get the over 60 kg gold cleared at Hong Kong customs.

After the CIB got information from Hong Kong customs, it sent Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Acharya to the island to investigate local connections in the gold smuggling case, according to Kadayat.

The latest seizure suggests that the Kathmandu airport continues to be a gateway for large-scale smuggling of gold. In 2017, authorities had busted individuals for smuggling 33 kg of gold, but the gold went missing.

Since the fiscal year 2018-2019, the NRB has purchased 375.6 kg of gold seized by the government authorities including the police, according to Acharya.