Ahmedabad, Oct 19 (IANS) The DRI arrested three accused and seized 13.017 kg of foreign-origin gold valued at Rs 19.41 crore in an operation that dismantled a syndicate that was smuggling the precious metal through Ahmedabad and Surat airports, an official said on Monday.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested the three accused under the Customs Act, 1962 for their involvement in organised gold smuggling into India through Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, and Surat International Airport, the official said in a statement.
Acting on specific intelligence, the DRI officers kept the suspects under surveillance and carried out coordinated searches over 42 hours beginning October 16, said the statement.
The operation uncovered the full chain of the racket: smuggling by air passengers, hand-over to handlers, illegal melting, and sale through a jewellery outlet, it said.
The DRI operation exposed dealings involving 13.017 kg of foreign-origin gold valued at approximately Rs 19.41 crore, said the statement.
Preliminary investigation revealed that smuggling of gold into the country was being carried out through passengers using ingenious concealment methods. These included thin gold wires coated with rhodium, gold embedded in the inner linings of trolley bags, and gold paste concealed within the bags’ inner shells, the DRI said.
After arrival, the gold was allegedly handed over to handlers outside the airports and routed through intermediaries to an illegal gold-melting facility in Vadodara. The melted gold was subsequently supplied to a jewellery shop in Ahmedabad for sale against cash, said the DRI.
The coordinated operation led to the seizure of around 890 grams of gold and the recovery of incriminating evidence relating to 6.41 kg of illegally melted gold, it said.
Further searches at the jewellery shop resulted in the recovery of undocumented foreign-origin gold bars and records relating to dealings involving around 5.8 kg of smuggled gold routed through a separate handler linked to the syndicate’s main financier based in Dubai, it said.
The operation exposed the interconnected roles of passengers, handlers, intermediaries, the gold-melting facility operator and the jewellery trade channel in facilitating the movement and disposal of smuggled gold, the DRI said.
The handler/financier, the operator of the melting facility and other key persons were identified during the investigation, it said.
–IANS
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