DRI seizes smuggled gold, in paste form, worth ₹2.67 crore

Mumbai: 3.35kg of gold worth ₹2.67 crore was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) while it was allegedly smuggled from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in an operation conducted in Mumbai airport.

A customer service executive at the airport and a member of a private ground-handling staff were arrested for their alleged involvement in the smuggling, said DRI sources.

The agency had initiated an operation based on intelligence reports of two people who were involved in gold smuggling through the Mumbai airport. After conducting necessary checks, a team of DRI officers intercepted the customer service executive at one of the exit gates of the airport. The executive was searched upon suspicion, leading to two packets of 3,350 grams of gold being recovered. The packets contained gold in paste form, which was meant to avoid detection, agency sources said.

The DRI officers also arrested a private ground-handling staff member who allegedly retrieved the smuggled gold from the waste cart of an international flight that came from Abu Dhabi, UAE. The gold was brought by others from UAE via the flight and as per the gold-trafficking network’s arrangements, it was hidden in the waste cart for him to pick, DRI sources said. The executive was supposed to take out the smuggled gold outside the airport, using her Aerodrome Entry Permit (AEP), but she was nabbed by the agency.

The accused persons were arrested, and the gold was seized as per the provisions of the Customs Act,1962.

Last month, in another gold seizure case, the DRI had arrested two passengers after recovering 9.4 kg smuggled gold of foreign origin valued at ₹7.69 crore at the Mumbai airport. Based on a specific tip-off, the DRI personnel had intercepted the two passengers travelling with fake identities on a flight from Jaipur to Mumbai. During their interrogation, they confessed that the gold was being smuggled from Kuwait by a person involved in an international smuggling syndicate. They had retrieved it from an international flight. Both the passengers in their voluntary statements admitted that the smuggled gold was concealed in the international route of the flight from where they retrieved.