Officials seize Rs 4.5 crore gold, passengers held

Smugglers, to avoid detection and to smuggle their goods, they come up with all sorts of methods and ideas. 

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials seized nearly 16kg gold worth Rs 4.5 crore from under seats of an aircraft and three passengers were arrested at Mumbai airport on Saturday. The accused allegedly confessed to the crime and said they were promised money to hide the gold under two seats.

Imran Tazneem, Fahad Shaikh, and Dharmesh Soni told officials they did not know much about Mohammed ‘Bhai’, who had given them the consignment in Dubai, with instructions to conceal it under the seats, and someone was to collect it during a domestic journey of the aircraft. DRI officials picked them up for questioning after the aircraft landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and recovered the gold.

READ ALSO: Tricolour rises high as Indian boxers sweep gold medals!

They claimed they were also unaware about who was to collect the gold. Officials suspect that someone associated with them may have been told to board that flight at the city airport during its domestic journey and collect the gold. The flight was bound for Ahmedabad. Soni and Shaikh live in Mumbai, while Imran is from Delhi.

Smugglers use such modus operandi to avoid suspicion, as domestic passengers are generally not on the radar of government agencies, officials said.

Air intelligence unit of Customs seized 15kg gold worth Rs 4 crore and arrested a Korean last week. He had arrived from Hong Kong. They found gold concealed in a specially-made pockets of his jacket.