A 24-year-old man from Kodagu landed at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport with gold paste worth Rs 55 lakh hidden in custom stitched jeans and underwear. The smuggling attempt reportedly unfolded after Indigo airlines flight 6E 1486 landed from Dubai.

According to reports the air intelligence unit of Bengaluru Customs said that the sleuths noticed something unusual about Kodago youth after on his arrival in the early hours of Sunday. The suspect was then frisked and his luggage checked. Sleuths closely examined the black jeans he was wearing and found pouches of gold paste stitched near the waist area.

The man’s underwear had many such gold pouches. Sleuths recovered 907 gm of gold paste from the youth and booked him for smuggling and customs duty evasion, the publication mentioned. Last month too, the customs officials had caught a passenger who was trying to smuggle gold paste weighing 284 gms. The man landed at Kempegowda international airport from Sharjah with gold paste hidden in the fly of his pants.

According to reports gold was concealed in a cover stitched along the zipline. The officials also recovered 3,300 foreign-brand cigarette sticks and 324 packets of cosmetics from his luggage. The three units of gold paste was worth Rs 47 lakh. Minister of state for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary a few days ago presented government data on gold smuggling.

The data stated seizure of smuggled gold had risen to an all time high of 3917.52 kg in January-October this year. As many as 4798 cases of gold smuggling were recorded till October 2023, and the quantity of gold seized stood at 3917.52 kg. The data revealed that 3502.16 kg of smuggled gold was seized in the country in 2022 and 3982 smuggling cases were detected. In 2021, 2383 kg of smuggled gold was seized and 2445 cases detected while in 2020, 2,155 kg of smuggled gold was seized and 2567 cases were detected.

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An Air India cabin crew was caught smuggling nearly 1.5 kilograms of gold at Kerala’s Kochi airport on Wednesday.

According to reports, the accused, a Wayanad resident identified as Shafi, was arrested by Customs officials at the Kochi airport with 1,487 grams of gold. Shafi worked as cabin crew onboard Air India’s Bahrain- Kozhikode-Kochi service.

Giving details, an official said that the Customs Preventive Commissionerate had received confidential information that an Air India cabin crew member Shafi was planning to smuggle gold onboard the aircraft by wrapping gold bars around his hands with tape and cover them with the sleeve of his shirt and pass through the green channel.

The official said that a case has been registered and the accused is being interrogated further, adding that investigation is underway.

In a similar incident, two passengers arriving from Singapore were caught smuggling gold weighing 6.8 kg valued at Rs 3.32 crores at the Chennai airport on Wednesday.

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Chennai customs said the passengers arrived aboard AI-347 and 6E-52 from Singapore and were intercepted by customs officials. On searching their luggage, gold worth Rs 3.32 crores weighing 6.8 kilograms was seized from them, they said.

Officials said the two passengers have been taken under custody and a case has been registered in this regard, adding that further investigation is underway.

In December last year, the Air Intelligence Unit at Kochi Airport recovered gold capsules worth Rs 44.14 lakh from a youth. Officials had said that the accused who travelled to Kochi airport from Dubai, had hidden these capsules inside his body.

Reports quoting a custom duty officer at the time said that Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs department had seized gold worth Rs 44.14 lakhs at Kochi airport from a passenger coming from Dubai. 4 capsules of gold in compound form concealed inside his body were recovered and seized.

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Again! A shocking smuggling case has been reported on Sunday at Mumbai’s airport, where the air intelligence unit (AIU) customs officials seized 61 kg of gold valued at Rs 32 crore in two separate cases. The report says that the police have arrested seven passengers in the connections.

Talking about the first case, it has been reported that the 3 offenders were caught as carriers and seized 53kg of gold from them. Police shared photos of the expensive material which was cleverly kept in form of bars, concealing in waist belts. The report also suggested that each offender was carrying around 18kg of gold in their belt.

In another operation, the AIU officials recovered 8kg gold and are questioning the person carrying it. Officials declined to elaborate, saying operations related to the seizure were continuing.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time such an incident has been reported by the Mumbai airport authority. Earlier, the Customs department held eight passengers, including three international citizens at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for trying to smuggle gold bar worth Rs more than 16.27 crore.

The airport authority then revealed that the accused was hiding the gold bars in a custom-made chest belt that wore underneath his shirt, another Indian passenger did the same, while a Sudanese national attempted to smuggle the bar by hiding it in his body.

Customs officials told the media that initially when they were accused, they noticed some fishy about them. At the security, their behavior was not normal which force them to check those passengers.

Meanwhile, a report suggested that in the last month, more than 50 cases of gold smuggling have been reported at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj international airport. Apart from this, four cases of smuggling foreign currency and more than three cases drug smuggling were also reported.

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Tamil Nadu’s Chennai airport custom officers on Wednesday nabbed two passengers, who were coming from Oman’s Muscat for smuggling 3 kg of gold worth Rs 1.33 crores. The report says that the offender was being held at the security check for carrying gold illegal inside their suitcase.

The whole incident has been captured on camera and shared by the airport custom authority. Later, the same video has been tweeted by the news agency ANI, where the customs officers were seen taking out the hidden gold strips from inside a trolly suitcase.

Take a look at the video of gold smuggling at Tami Nadu’s Chennai airport by two passengers

In the video, it can be seen that one of the customs officers ripped apart the offender’s suitcase in order to get the illegal gold. As the video moves ahead, the officers also were seen taking out the gold strips weighing 3 kg that were concealed in the outer lining of trolley suitcases.

According to the reports, the airport authority revealed that initially, they had noticed some unusual activity by both the accused. Later, during the security check, they felt something inside in their beg and forced them to check every inch of them.

Police say that further investigation is going on and soon offenders will be punished as per the law.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time such an incident come into the limelight. Earlier, Mumbai Airport customs officers seized almost 15 kgs of gold worth Rs more than 7.80 crore. They have also arrested seven people in the matter.

In another similar incident, the Delhi airport authority arrested two youths for carrying drugs worth Rs 10 crore. During the investigation, the accused accepted their crime and revealed that it was their second of smuggling drugs.

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The Customs officials at the Trichy airport in Tamil Nadu nabbed a smuggler flying from Singapore for hiding gold paste worth Rs 15 lakh in custom-made underwear.

The video of the same is doing rounds on the internet wherein the Customs Officials could be seen unveiling the underwear and taking out the gold paste from it. Reports said the man was busted during the interception.

Watch the viral video here:

The man was travelling from Singapore to Trichy via an Indigo aircraft, a report in India Today said. The report further said the gold packet was concealed between two layers of cloth stitched together. The paste was treated with chemicals and was 24 karat gold weighing 301 gm which is worth Rs 15.32 lakh.

There have been several arrests made for overseas gold smuggling this year. Earlier, Customs officers seized 12 kg of gold from a group of Sudanese passengers at the Mumbai airport. The gold recovered from the smugglers was worth Rs 5.38 crore.

Reports said gold was hidden in a belt which was specially designed to smuggle the metal. The belt was worn by one of the passengers and was busted after officials sensed something illegal.

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Watch the viral video here:

In another incident, Customs Officials nabbed two men from Kozhikode, Kerala at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru who attempted to smuggle gold worth Rs 97.4 lakh concealed in custom-made underwear.

Reports stated that one of the accused men landed from Abu Dhabi on Sunday, while the other landed a few hours earlier. The first man was caught smuggling 918 grams of gold worth Rs 47.3 lakh, while the second man was nabbed with 966 grams of gold worth Rs 50.08 lakh, reports said.

Apart from smuggling gold, there have been several reports of drug smuggling being busted at different International airports in India.

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In a high-speed chase in Lucknow on Tuesday, revenue department officials seized 77 smuggled gold biscuits weighing about 9 kg from two passengers who returned from Saudi Arabia. The officials recovered 77 gold biscuits that had been hidden in their belts and pockets in their undergarments.

As per the intelligence input, the biscuits were to be handed over to people at the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, who would then proceed towards Muzaffarnagar.

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The Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in Lucknow had received information that two passengers arriving from Saudi Arabia capital Riyadh would smuggle gold biscuits.

As per the information, the officials of DRI Lucknow kept an eye on the suspects once they landed in Lucknow. What followed was a high-speed pursuit of two SUVs on the Agra-Lucknow expressway. When the DRI officials finally intercepted the vehicles, the two passengers from Riyadh and those who had come to receive them were found inside.

Following a detailed investigation, the DRI said the main handler was arrested in Lucknow. A Customs hawaldar, who allegedly connived with the smugglers in getting them gold through the airport, has also been arrested.

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