At Bengaluru airport, a cat-and-mouse game between enforcement agencies and mules
The city’s Kempegowda International Airport has emerged as a ‘preferred landing point’ for all kinds of contraband, including drugs, gold, wildlife, and wildlife artefacts, even as the consignment destinations have been other cities. Detecting them has be
fficials at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru were intrigued by a 40yearold Venezuelan passenger flying from Dubai (UAE) to Bengaluru on February 9. Throughout the journey, he refused to consume anything, including water. This raised red flags. He was detained and subjected to a medical examination. It turned out that the passenger had capsules containing 920 grams of cocaine in his belly. The drugs were worth ₹9.2 crore, one of the biggest seizures at the KIA in recent times.
The accused was a mule for an international drug racket. He was carrying the narcotics for his contact in New Delhi, officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.
On February 28, DRI officials arrested a 25yearold man from Delhi who was carrying 1,498 grams of gold bars. Based on passenger profiling, officials zeroed in on the accused who was caught soon after he landed at the KIA from Dubai. The accused had gone to Dubai on a tourist visa. He returned to Bengaluru within a few days after getting an assignment as a mule. The accused had planned to take a flight from Bengaluru to Delhi.
In another case, Customs officials caught a Thai national flying in from Dubai on March 1, trying to smuggle 824.6 grams of gold paste worth ₹50.7 lakh, concealed within his body. The passenger was caught based on surveillance by field officers, and is suspected to be a mule for an international gold smuggling racket.
In February alone, DRI and Customs officials seized over 20 kg of gold being smuggled through the KIA. After Terminal 2 (T2) became operational on January 15, 2023, the KIA registered a 35% growth in passenger traffic in 2023 compared with the previous year, and served 3.72 crore passengers. The cases of smuggling of contraband, mainly narcotics and gold, have also gone up. The KIA has emerged as a “preferred landing point” for all kinds of contraband, including wildlife and wildlife artefacts, apart from narcotics and gold, heading to other cities, according to recent airport intel.
In another instance, KIA Customs unearthed a wild animal trafficking racket, arrested a 34yearold man from Tamil Nadu flying in from Bangkok, Thailand, and rescued 234 wild animals — python, chameleon, iguana, turtles, alligators, and a dead baby kangaroo — in August 2023. The consignment was destined for Chennai.“This is a constant catandmouse game, where we keep playing catch up and the smugglers try to evade us. The KIA was reporting several narcotics smuggling cases a few years ago. After we busted a series of narcotics cases, the landing point had shifted to Mumbai, and the cases had come down in Bengaluru. But after many smuggling attempts were foiled at both Delhi and Mumbai airports, the KIA has again emerged as a preferred landing point. We have heightened our vigil, which is reflected in
OILLUSTRATION: SEBASTIAN FRANCIS
Detection of mules is mostly a function of the expertise of field officers, often aided by leads from other agencies, their counterparts at other airports overseas, or from within the contraband trade.
A SENIOR CUSTOMS OFFICIAL