AIU detects three smuggling cases, gold worth ₹49.9L found

Three separate smuggling cases were detected by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at the Mumbai international airport on Wednesday.

Officials said that early on Wednesday, acting on a tip off, AIU officials searched a flight that arrived to the city from Muscat and found a packet containing gold worth Rs24.4 lakh in its toilet. “We recovered a white coloured packet in the cavity of the plane’s lavatory. It contained assorted 21 carat gold jewellery weighing 906 grams and worth Rs24.4 lakh,” said a senior AIU officer.

The flight was supposed to fly to Kolkata after the break in Mumbai. “We suspect that someone from Kolkata was supposed to retrieve it,” said the officer.

In a similar incident, AIU officers on Wednesday intercepted an Imtiyaz Hussain for trying to smuggle in gold. He held an Indian passport and had arrived from Dubai.

“We found Hussain carrying a gold chain weighing 508 gram worth Rs15.5 lakh. The passenger is a frequent flier and acted as a carrier to smuggle goods in exchange of Rs10,000,” said the officer.

In another case, AIU intercepted three passengers from Dubai —Mashhoodul Hasan, Mohammed Safi Biligi and Irshad Ahamed — who were trying to smuggle branded products. “All of them were found carrying smuggled assorted goods such as cigarettes from Gudang Garam, branded wrist watches, Sony play stations, weighing machines, assorted gold rings worth Rs10 lakh,” said the senior AIU officer. He added, “The trio was acting as carriers for smuggling goods.”

In total, gold worth Rs 49.9 lakh was recovered from the accused. But no arrests have been made in the cases as the value of the seizures is below Rs20 lakh each.