Mumbai Airport reported its biggest gold seizure on November 11th, recovering more than 60kg of the precious metal in two separate cases. Officers at Indian airports deal with several instances of passengers trying to smuggle gold throughout the year, some using unusual methods to trick the authorities.
Case 1
On Friday, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) seized 61 kg of gold worth ₹320 million ($5 million) in two separate operations, in what it is being termed as its biggest haul yet.
In the first case, four Indian nationals were arrested after a total of 53 kg of gold was recovered from them. They had arrived from Tanzania. The Indian Express quotes an airport official to be saying,
“They were found carrying smuggled gold in the form of 1 kg bars ingeniously concealed in specially designed waist belts with multiple pockets wrapped around their torso. A total of 53 kg gold valued at Rs 28.17 crore was recovered from the four.”
The passengers told the authorities that they were given the gold by an unknown Sudanese national during transit at Doha airport, who was not present on the flight.
Case 2
On the same day, around 8kg of gold was seized from three passengers, one of them a woman in her late sixties who required wheelchair assistance. They had arrived on a flight from Dubai (DXB).
Officials said they found “gold dust in wax form ingeniously concealed in the waistline of the jeans worn by the passengers.” They have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
Other attempts
Passengers smuggling gold into India is not new, and officers are on the lookout for such cases at all major airports. Earlier this month, customs officials at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport seized gold worth almost ₹30 million ($369,000) from three passengers who concealed it inside body shapers.
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While anyone under suspicion is questioned and searched, officials have their own way of identifying the culprits. The Indian Express quotes an official as saying,
“At Mumbai Airport, based on the continuous monitoring of suspicious flights and building on the data-based analysis from the earlier high-quantum gold and foreign currency seizures, a systematic profiling of suspect passengers was undertaken on sensitive flights from certain places in Africa and the Middle East.”
Passengers also try to use different methods to carry out these illegal operations to trick authorities. On Friday, officials at Thiruvananthapuram Airport in South India seized around 1 kg of gold from a passenger arriving from Dubai. The person had mixed the metal with chemicals and carried it in the form of capsules to avoid detection.
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In October, a passenger arriving at Kochi from Dubai was arrested for trying to smuggle gold by carrying bath towels dipped in liquid gold and packing them as part of the luggage.
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Source: The Indian Express