By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, November 14:
In a major breakthrough, Mumbai Airport Customs seized 61 Kg gold worth Rs 32 crore and arrested 7 passengers, including five men and two women, in two separate cases within a day on Friday.
All the arrested accused have been remanded to 14 days judicial custody by the Metropolitan Magistrate court, a Customs officer said.
“ On Nov 11, Mumbai Airport Customs foiled attempts to smuggle 61 Kg gold valued @ Rs 32 Crore. This was the highest ever seizure in a single day. 7 passengers were arrested”, Mumbai Custom tweeted.
In the first case, four Indians who arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport, Mumbai from Tanzania, were intercepted by the air intelligence unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs, led by Deputy Commissioner Manudev Jain. They were found carrying smuggled gold in the form of 1 kg gold bars concealed in specially designed waist belts with multiple pockets wrapped around their torsos.
The belts with UAE-made gold bars concealed inside were handed over to the passengers by a Sudanese national at Doha airport. The Sudanese national did not travel with them. The passengers were to get Rs 50,000 each for delivering it Mumbai destination.
In another case, the Mumbai Customs seized 8 kg gold valued at Rs 3.88 crore from three passengers, one man and two women, who arrived from Dubai. The passengers were carrying the gold dust in wax form which was concealed in the waste line of the jeans worn by them. One of the accused women in her last sixties was moving in a wheel chair.
Based on the continuous monitoring of suspicious flights and data-based analysis from the earlier high-quantum gold and foreign currency seizures, a systematic profiling of suspected passengers is being undertaken on sensitive flights from certain places in Africa and the Middle East. This profiling has been code named “Operation Parchhai” (Operation shadowing).
A modus operandi noticed in the recent case of the seizure of foreign currency worth Rs 4.08 crore and profiling of passengers led to success in these cases.