Seven Sudanese among Ten, held in a Pan India operation codenamed “ Golden Dawn”
By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Feb 22:
In a pan-India operation, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a gold smuggling syndicate of Sudanese nationals operating through the Nepal border and seized 101.7 kg smuggled gold, valued at about Rs 51 crore early this week.
In the operation, codenamed “Golden Dawn”, DRI also seized foreign currency worth Rs 74 lakh and Indian currency worth Rs 63 lakh and arrested 7 Sudanese and 3 Indian nationals, official statement here said.
The DRI intercepted the smugglers at Patna (Bihar) and Pune and Mumbai (in Maharashtra). In Mumbai the raids were conducted at Colaba and Zaveri Bazar in South Mumbai.
The seized gold, mostly in paste form, was being brought to Patna through the India-Nepal border and then transported via train or by air to different parts of the country, largely to Mumbai. The contraband included about 20.2 kg of smuggled gold in assorted forms seized from different premises in Mumbai, being used for extraction/storage of smuggled gold.
Three Indians were apprehended in this follow-up action. They included two brothers-Saif Sayyed Khan and Shamsher, operating from Colaba in South Mumbai, who used to purchase the gold from foreign nationals and sell it to a merchant-Manish Prakash Jain, operating from Zaveri Bazar. Jain was said to be involved in the clandestine deal earlier too.
The DRI officials intercepted three Sudanese nationals late night on February 19 while boarding a train from Patna railway station for Mumbai. Paste containing gold weighing 37.126 kg in 40 packets was recovered from two Sudanese nationals who had ingeniously concealed it in specially made cavities of the sleeveless jackets worn by them. The third person was the handler coordinating the smuggling activity at the border area and arranging the transport of the smuggled gold.
The second set of two Sudanese women nationals was held on February 20 in Pune while travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai via bus and 5.615 kg of gold in assorted forms concealed in their handbags was recovered from them.
The third set of two Sudanese nationals travelling to Mumbai from Patna was intercepted at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on Central Railway in Mumbai on the same day. Paste containing gold weighing 38.76 kg in 40 packets was recovered from them.
DRI has earlier unearthed different modus operandi of smuggling foreign-origin gold into India such as from the north-eastern parts of the country either through courier routes of logistics companies, using concealment methods in vehicles, in person by bus, train, flight, etc, or recovery of gold from the seabed in Tamil Nadu coast after it was thrown away by smugglers from a fishing boat, etc, apart from the traditional modes used by crooks. The recently detected gold smuggling in paste form is relatively new method.
Forex Seized
In another development a passenger-Poonam Sombaya (53) travelling on an American passport was arrested along with foreign exchange -10 lakh US dollars and 37 Singapore dollars (worth Rs 08.36 crore) by the Customs officials at Mumbai airport. The foreign exchange was hidden in a bag.
