The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seizes 8.5 kg foreign-origin gold and over 1,100 carats of diamonds worth Rs 13.5 crore; eight people arrested.
8.5 kg foreign-origin gold caught at Mumbai airport
Mumbai(Rights Media): The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted a sophisticated two-way smuggling syndicate operating through Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, resulting in the seizure of 8.564 kg of 24-carat foreign-origin gold valued at approximately Rs. 12.64 crore and 1,168.97 carats of diamonds valued at approximately Rs. 1.09 crore.
Eight persons, including an airport staff member, six transit passengers and an Indian outbound passenger, have been arrested. The airport staff further found that five more transit passengers arriving on different flights from Dubai, Doha, Jeddah and Fujairah were also scheduled to deliver smuggled gold.
The operation has uncovered a distinctive two-way modus operandi, wherein the same airport staff member was allegedly facilitating the movement of contraband in both directions—receiving smuggled foreign-origin gold from international transit passengers for clandestine removal into India, while simultaneously facilitating the illicit export of diamonds to Dubai through an outbound passenger.
