According to the customs officials, systematized vigilance and deployment of more security personnel across the international airport have led to more seizures of the prohibited substances.
Figures acquired from the Mumbai Custom's Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) concerning gold smuggling accentuate that the customs officers in the year 2018-19 have seized a total of 731.85 kilograms of gold worth Rs 188.79 crore. It has also registered a total of 1844 cases against all smugglers. The statistics also indicate that the number of seizures has slightly dropped as compared to the preceding year i.e 2017-18 where 789 kilograms of gold valued at Rs 171.24 crore was seized and 1867 cases were registered. On the other hand, the seizures of narcotic substances have seen an increase in 2018-19 where over 190 kilograms of various banned drugs worth Rs 10 crores fell into the customs net which was a mere 81 kilograms in 2017-18.
According to the customs officials, systematized vigilance and deployment of more security personnel across the international airport have led to more seizures of the prohibited substances. Last year, the AIU sleuths had arrested a total of 131 Indian passengers and 80 foreign nationals for smuggling of gold, foreign currencies, narcotics and other materials. However, the detection of passengers smuggling drugs was comparatively less, with a total of seven arrests including three Indian and four foreign nationals. Similarly, 555 passengers were booked for smuggling the prohibited goods which also includes modern electronic devices like mobile phones, laptops, TV sets and I-pads worth Rs 13 crores.
Speaking about the increasing rate of gold smuggling cases reported at the international airport, a senior level officer from the AIU on the request of anonymity told DNA, "Most of the smuggling cases are being reported from the passengers arriving from the middle-east countries like Kuwait, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Dubai. Passengers from other countries like Sri Lanka, Korea and Bangkok are also frequently seen indulging in smuggling of goods. It is noticed that the gold which is seized is of pure quality and nothing else is mixed with it which makes it more valuable in the gold market,"
Sources from the AIU says that smuggling of gold by concealing it under seat buckles, aircraft seats, dustbins and other such places is extremely common but with course of time, people are getting more creative ideas so as to escape from the vision of immigration and customs officers and also to get away from modernised security checking machines. "Belts, headphones, hairbands and other daily used things are increasingly becoming smuggling channels. This helps the smugglers to execute their work in a more easy manner and thus it becomes a challenge for us to detect all those passengers. In one such incident that occurred on the airport, one of the passengers had concealed smuggled gold inside a diaper and painted it with a yellow colour to portray it as baby poop. Fortunately, one of the officers sensed out the fake story and after proper checking recovered three kilograms of gold," said Mumbai Airport Customs Commissioner, V Rama Mathew.
The airport officials have also asked for upgraded metal detectors and metal detecting devices to detect chunks of gold, which when mixed with a compound, goes undetected at the airport, no matter how many metal detectors it passes through. Only physical frisking and passenger profiling is helpful to detect the people having carried such a metal mixed with a compound.
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