Gold smugglers trying new ways to walk past customs!
LUCKNOW: Recent catches by customs authorities at the Lucknow airport here have revealed that smugglers are using unique tricks to dodge law enforcement agencies at international airports to bring gold from Gulf countries. Customs officials arrested a Bihar resident who was carrying around 1.25 kg gold concealed in the form of metal strips of a trolley bag.
LUCKNOW: Recent catches by customs authorities at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport here have revealed that smugglers are using unique tricks to dodge law enforcement agencies at airports to bring gold from Gulf countries.
Customs officials arrested a Bihar resident, Bhupendra Yadav who was carrying around 1.25 kg gold worth ₹40 lakh, when he reached Amausi airport in a flight from Abu Dhabi on Thursday. SK Sharma, commissioner of customs (preventive), UP and Uttarakhand, said Yadav was concealing the gold in the form of metal strips of a trolley bag. He was intercepted during checking of passengers and their baggage before exit from the airport.
Sharma said an arrest on Wednesday revealed another trick. A Barabanki resident, Abu Bakar, was arrested when his baggage was undergoing security check on his arrival at the airport in a flight from Dubai. Bakar was carrying around 2 kg gold worth ₹61 lakh. The yellow metal was concealed in the form of wiring inside a vacuum cleaner, added the officer.
He said smugglers often used such methods to hide gold in their baggage. On October 7, a Delhi resident Gurmeet Singh was arrested at Lucknow for carrying around 1.25 kg gold worth ₹40 lakh. Coming from Abu Dhabi, he was concealing the gold in the form of small metal pieces polished as silver metal.
Another customs official said the two persons arrested on Wednesday and Thursday were suspected to be carriers of an international smuggling racket.
Sharma said several startling trends had emerged in 2013 and 2014 when the carriers concealed thin gold bars in their rectum after packing them in condoms.
One Arun Kumar was arrested at Amausi airport on August 27, 2013 for concealing around 1.7 kg gold bars worth ₹57 lakh in his body using the same trick.
The official said, “In many cases, the smugglers mould buckles out of gold metal with mercury polish and use it in belts. In some cases, thin gold wires were smartly concealed in the form of beading in luggage bags.
Some carriers concealed it in shoe soles while others in their special designed clothes.” He said one carrier was caught with smuggled gold strips concealed as bathroom fittings on March 4, 2014.