Gold smuggled as date seeds in Pune; one arrested

An ingenious smuggling activity was busted by officials of Central Excise and Customs department on Sunday when they seized 409.80 grams of gold worth Rs12.39 lakh.

The gold had been concealed in the form of seeds inside packets of dates that were being brought into the country. The officers seized 21 golden seeds from Ismail P Mohammad Faisal (21) who is suspected to have smuggled the gold to Dubai.

A team of officers led by deputy commissioner of the customs department MV Badari Prasad nabbed Faisal at Pune airport. According to them, he was the courier and was a driver by profession who works in Dubai.

“Faisal flew from Dubai to Pune on a Spice Jet flight and reached Lohegaon airport with three boxes of dates. He tried crossing the green channel without declaring his possession. This raised the suspicion of the customs officers who then searched the date boxes. On opening the boxes after a closer examination, we found that the gold seeds were embedded in the dates,” said officials, adding that Faisal claimed to be unaware of the gold concealed in dates.

Gold biscuits, coins seized at airport
The central excise and customs department in September had seized 1.27 kg of gold biscuits and gold coins estimated to be worth Rs36 lakh hidden inside a hot plate at Lohegaon airport and arrested Asan Khan Jamalluddin (26) and Raja Sayyed Mehendi Khan of Mumbra. The duo had been charged for smuggling gold from a middle-eastern country.