Gujarat: Two more passengers caught at airport with gold in rectum

Most of the gold has been smuggled from Bangkok, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat, Oman and Kuwait. On January 29, a Bangkok passenger was caught with 1 kg gold in paste form in three capsules inside his rectum. The following day, a passenger from Sharjah was caught with 600 grams of gold as a bracelet, chain and anklet inside his jacket and a third passenger, again from Bangkok, was caught on January 31 with 300 grams of gold inside a capsule in his rectum.

During the year 2018-19 (till January 2019), a total of 91 cases were registered, where gold worth Rs 18.71 crore was smuggled through the international airports in Ahmedabad and Surat. If the entire financial year 2018-19 is taken into account, a total of 81.41 kilograms of gold worth Rs 23.75 crore was sized and 133 cases registered against passengers flying into the state.

According to Santosh, “This year till January 2020, a total of 97 cases have been registered at the international airport at Ahmedabad where 70 kilograms of gold worth Rs 24.80 crore was seized, while at the Surat airport, 16 cases were registered where 7 kilograms of gold worth Rs 2.31 crore was seized”.

Showcause notice

“We have issued showcause notices to 19 persons in the case where 4,886 kilograms of gold is suspected to have smuggled in to Gujarat during the past four years. There was one syndicate involved in this case, which we have finished investigating. Investigation is still continuing in multiple cases,” said Kumar Santosh.

He said that investigation of residents of Kenya and Dubai were pursued through DRI in the case where the first consignment of gold caught was 24.5 kilograms in June 2019. Within six months, the quantity of smuggled gold involved was estimated to be 4,886 kilograms. “We have arrested 12 persons and eight were detained under COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act),” the official said. He said an advisory board comprising three retired judges of the Gujarat High Court came to review and “okayed” (found it on firm ground) the case.

When asked where the undetected smuggled gold has gone, the officer said, “It has gone into the Indian market.” In November 2019, the Customs official had said that the department has evidence that 1800 kilogram of smuggled gold was directed to Rajkot.

Tracking smuggling

“Since September 2019, we have been using the Air Passengers Information System to profile and track down frequent flyers to foreign locations. It has been very successful. We are not only able to track down to possible smugglers, but also avoid inconvenience to other passengers,” he said.

“We are getting eight new XBIS machines, which are basically X-ray baggage scanners as the old ones are about six years at both Ahmedabad and Surat airports are old and suffer breakdowns. The department has also requisitioned for two sniffer dogs. There are about 117 CCTV cameras at the Ahmedabad airport but not all of them are located in the customs zone. We have also sought CCTV installations from the airport director near the edge of the aerobridge and at the air cargo complex,” the official said.