DRI Seizes 41 kg Smuggled Gold Worth Rs 62 Crore Across India

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, known as the DRI, has seized around 41 kg of foreign-origin gold in six intelligence-led operations. The gold is valued at about Rs 62 crore. In all, 24 persons were arrested, three of them foreign nationals. The operations exposed elaborate methods of concealment and organised networks working through airports, rail routes and the border with Bangladesh.

The Delhi operations

Searches were carried out at premises linked to a man engaged in buying foreign-origin gold and converting it. A manufacturing set-up for melting, rolling and die-cutting gold was found inside a residential premises. Officers recovered four gold bars of 1 kg each and about 6.2 kg of chains made from smuggled bars, so the seizure came to roughly 10.2 kg. The owner of the unit was arrested. In a separate case a vehicle arriving from Punjab was intercepted and 1.21 kg of gold was recovered along with foreign currency worth about Rs 43.50 lakh.

Border and railway seizures

In each of these cases the persons carrying the gold could not produce documents to show lawful possession, and the metal was seized under the Customs Act, 1962.

The airport syndicate

At Mumbai a syndicate of transit passengers, airport staff and a handler was broken up. An airport staffer was chased for about 50 km after slipping out of the airport by car and was found carrying capsules of gold dust in wax form. Two transit passengers were then intercepted inside the airport while handing over more capsules. They had arrived from Muscat and Dubai and were to fly on to Bangkok after making the delivery. Eight capsules weighing 3.47 kg in net weight were recovered and five persons arrested.

Other methods of concealment

• An arc-shaped bar of about 700 grams was hidden in the motor of a treadmill imported from Hong Kong
• At Calicut, 770 grams was extracted from capsules and a packet hidden inside the diaper worn by a passenger’s infant daughter
• About 1 kg of gold was taken from the metal ring of a coffee machine in checked-in baggage from Dubai
• At Chennai, capsules concealed in the body of two passengers arriving from Sri Lanka yielded 2.5 kg of gold, and six persons were arrested

The DRI said such coordinated action continues to break organised smuggling chains at several stages and to stop the illegal movement of precious metals into the country.