“When the Qatar Airways aircraft, after landing at Dabolim airport, was searched today, the Air Intelligence wing found a duty-free plastic bag with gold in a dustbin of the rear left toilet of the aircraft,” said K Anpazhakan, Commissioner of Customs, Goa Division, adding that the seizure was made based on an intelligence input regarding smuggling of gold via Qatar Airways aircraft QR-522.
“Our officers inquired with the crew of the aircraft, which had arrived from Qatar. They informed that they did not know who owned the bag. Inquiries were also made with the passengers, but no one had any knowledge about it,” said Anpazhakan.
The bag was opened in the international arrival hall of the airport and it was found to contain gold jewellery, including over 600 chains, bangles and bracelets etc), and other material, weighing a total of 7.124 kilograms. The gold is worth Rs 1.94 core in the international market.
This is the second seizure of gold by Goa Customs in a week. On April 24, two kilograms of unclaimed gold bars worth Rs 54 lakh was seized from the same flight. “The bars were hidden in a pouch of a life jacket, which was attached below a passenger’s seat,” said Anpazhakan.
According to Anpazhakan, although the gold of Wednesday’s incident had been abandoned, there was a strong possibility that the airline staff or ground crew was involved in smuggling the gold. The smuggling bid had been foiled due to the strict vigil of Goa Customs.
“Earlier, it was mostly Air India’s flight AI-984 that was used by gold smugglers. As the airline operator closed down this flight’s operations in Goa, smugglers have now been using Qatar airways to smuggle gold.”
