PANJIM: Smuggling of gold with the suspected help of some airline insiders has turned into a major headache for the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of airport customs. Records indicate that a majority of the gold is smuggled on Air India’s flight AI-984 and Qatar Airways’ QR-522.
The trend in the past two-and-half years shows that it is mainly residents of Bhatkal and nationals of Sri Lanka that are involved in smuggling gold from the Gulf to India.
In 2013, nearly 16 gold smuggling attempts were foiled with AIU officials arresting nearly 25 carriers who either concealed gold in their body cavities, on their person, or hid it underneath the airplane seats. Records available with Herald reveal that in the first nine months of that year, 14 cases have been booked, and 22 persons were caught with the smuggled goods worth Rs 12 crore.
A majority of the passengers had traveled by the Dubai-Mumbai-Goa Air India flight AI-984. “In some cases the smugglers planted their carriers in Mumbai to board the same flight to Goa while in other cases, the carriers continued their journey from Dubai to Goa via Mumbai,” a customs official told Herald. The increasing cases were attributed to the hike in import duty of gold.
Besides the two flights, AIU had recovered 1.550 kg gold bars from Air Arabia’s G9-499 flight from Sarjah to Goa in mid 2013. Four Sri Lankans were arrested in the smuggling cases in that year.
In the following year, the number of raids reduced to around 8-10 but saw the same flight being used to smuggle gold with smugglers even dropping it in the toilet’s dustbin.
“There have been many cases where the carriers not only hide the gold pieces in their rectum, but conceal it in TV boxes or fruit boxes, and cover it with carbon paper to pass through the scanner,” the officer said.
In the current year, Customs officials have seized nearly 50 kg of gold valued at nearly Rs 14 crore in the international market and arrested persons from Chennai and Mumbai apart from Bhatkal.
“Goa is a transit point for smuggling gold into India via Dubai. Goa is connected to the Middle East with flights coming from Sharjah, Dubai and Doha. Most of the seizures are on Dubai-Goa Air India flights coming either via Mumbai or directly every Tuesday. International passengers from Bangkok also board the flight from Dubai to Goa via Mumbai,” an officer said.
Sources said that the seized property is given to SBI for auctioning.
