Mumbai Airport Customs Seizes 61 Kgs Of Gold In One Day
Mumbai, 13th November 2022: On 11th November, the Mumbai Airport Customs seized 61 Kg gold valued at Rs 32 Crore and arrested seven passengers (five males and two females) across two different cases. This has been the highest seizure in a single day in the reported history of Mumbai Airport Customs.
In the first case, four passengers of Indian nationality, who landed from Tanzania, were found carrying smuggled gold in the form of one kg bars ingeniously concealed in specially designed waist belts with multiple pockets. A total of 53 Kg (12, 13, 14, and 14) of gold valued at Rs 28.17 Crore was recovered from the four passengers.
The specially designed belts with UAE-made gold bars concealed inside were handed over to the passengers by a person of Sudanese nationality at Doha airport during the transit time.
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. In the recent case of the Foreign Currency seizure of 4.08 Crores, the pattern and mode of operation noticed, along with profiling of foreign national passengers and extrapolating the patterns, led to success in this case.
During the operation, four Indian passengers arrived from Doha on Qatar Airways Flight No. QR-556 were intercepted. On enquiry, they were found to be coming from Tanzania. The gold bars were concealed on their body in a specially designed belt, having multiple pockets, wrapped around their torso. During the interrogation, all four passengers confessed that they were handed over the gold in transit at the Doha airport by an unknown Sudanese national who had not travelled with them on the flight. All four passengers have been arrested and remanded to 14 days of judicial custody by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
In another case, based on intelligence, officers of Mumbai Airport Customs seized eight kg of gold valued at Rs 3.88 Crore from three passengers (one male and two females) who arrived from Dubai by Vistara Flight. Gold dust in wax form was found ingeniously concealed in the waistline of the jeans (pants) worn by the passengers. Of the three passengers, one lady in her late sixties was in a wheelchair. All three passengers have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation into the matter is going on.
