Stash returns in gold
Smugglers convert black money into gold in W Asia ENTRY BY BACKDOOR
Last Wednesday the DRI received a vital piece of information. They waited for an international flight coming via New Delhi to land at the RGI Airport because they knew that by searching the flight they could foil one of the biggest gold smuggling bids in recent times. The flight had come from Dubai to Ahmedabad before it came to Hyderabad via New Delhi. As it landed, DRI sleuths conducted a search and as expected they found what they were looking for. Gold bars weighing 9 kg worth around `2.5 crore hidden under a passenger seat cushion. However, the smuggler had already escaped abandoning the gold.
The DRI officials do not know where the smuggler vanished. He could have got down at Ahmedabad or New Delhi. This is not the first case of a smuggler abandoning a huge quantity of gold. There were several other cases at RGIA and other airports after the Centre started efforts to bring back black money from Swiss Banks. DRI officials say the investigation to trace the source of the gold is still on.
This trend has strengthened customs' suspicion that Swiss stash is coming to India as gold. Customs officials think that highly professional smugglers are operating for rich businessmen who have Swiss bank deposits to bring back the stash before the Centre can find them. Officials say that there were frequent IB alerts regarding this.
“We have seen different kinds of smugglers, but this case could be handiwork of gangs. The smuggler could have left it for his helper to pick it up and smuggle out of the airport or he must have escaped after knowing that enforcement agencies have already got information,” said a customs official who has been investigating smuggling cases in Hyderabad.
“After the Centre started attempts to bring back black money there have been several such cases. We have a strong suspicion that gangs convert the Swiss black money into gold in West Asia and smuggle it into India,” said a senior customs official.
However, officials at Customs headquarters say that they could not arrest any of the smugglers who are connected to the Swiss black money smuggling gangs.
“We are hoping to find some links between the arrested smugglers and these gangs,” said an official.
Intelligence agencies, DRI, and customs departments have started cooperating to bust the gangs.
Officials say these gangs use airport staff to smuggle the gold out. Since incoming passengers are frisked the smugglers leave the gold at a fixed place in the flight or airport before security/customs check and ‘insiders’ like cleaners, catering workers, airport passenger support services employees and air hostesses get the gold out of the airport for a commission.
In some recent cases airport staffers were caught by customs. The airport staff sometimes manage to evade security checks and successfully smuggle gold out.