TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Adding to a string of successful raids by the commissionerate of central excise and customs in the recent past, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) officials at Dabolim airport on Thursday held three passengers for allegedly trying to smuggle gold bars worth over Rs 87 lakh into the country by concealing it in a fruit juice pack and rectum.
The trio identified as Rukman Ameedu, Hyder Ali and Sayyed Mohammad, all natives of Tamil Nadu, had arrived on Air India flight from Dubai. They were found with 28 smuggled gold biscuits of 100 gms each at the airport.
“Ameedu was the first to be detained after he was found suspiciously roaming around the airport with the fruit juice pack. On searching, we found it had gold concealed in it. He was interrogated and he confessed to carrying 2.8 kilogram of gold along with two other persons,” said an official.
Ali had hidden gold in his rectum while Sayyed was also carrying the yellow metal. They were subsequently arrested and charged under various sections of Customs Act.
Customs sleuths have arrested around a dozen persons including international passengers and booked at least six gold smuggling cases since August 2013. The Commissionerate concedes that Goa is a transit point for smuggling gold into India via Dubai. Goa is connected to Middle East with flights coming from Sharjah, Dubai and Doha. Most of the seizures are detected on Dubai-Goa Air India flights coming either via Mumbai or directly.
