In a single day, Customs officials seized up to 61 kg of gold worth Rs 32 crore at the Mumbai airport. On Friday, the sleuths seized 53 kg of gold from four passengers travelling from Tanzania, and another 8 kg of gold was recovered from three passengers flying from Dubai.
The Mumbai Airport Customs made the most seizures in a single day.In the first instance, four Indian nationals arriving from Tanzania were found with smuggled gold in the form of 1 kg bars. The gold bars were concealed in waist belts with multiple pockets specially designed for the purpose. The four passengers recovered a total of 53 kg gold worth Rs 28.17 crore.
According to information received, the specially designed belts concealing gold bars made in the UAE were handed over to passengers at Doha airport during transit by a Sudanese national.
Following a recent foreign currency seizure, officials were closely monitoring flights from Africa and the Middle East. Four Indian passengers arriving from Doha on a Qatar Airways flight were intercepted based on information provided. Further questioning revealed that the passengers were from Tanzania.
53 kg of gold was found during a personal search of the four passengers. The gold bars were hidden inside a specially designed belt that was wrapped around their torso.
All four passengers admitted to being handed the gold while in transit at the Doha airport by an unknown Sudanese national who had not travelled with them on the flight.
In the second case, Mumbai Airport Customs officers seized 8 kg gold worth Rs 3.88 crore from three passengers, two of whom were females, who had arrived from Dubai.
Gold dust in the form of wax was found hidden in the waistline of the passengers’ jeans. One of the three passengers, a lady in her late sixties, was in a wheelchair.All three passengers were arrested and remanded in custody.
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