Gold smugglers now audacious, craftier

Against the backdrop of recent instances of smuggling of gold in huge quantity in the city via air route, the Airport Customs department has said that smugglers are making the audacious move of carrying huge quantity of gold in person, which was not the case in earlier cases.

In a span of just two weeks, the Airport Intelligence Unit of Customs have recovered 20 kg of the precious metal from one person and 15 kg from another. More women are also being used by smuggling syndicates, they said.

According to the AIU officials, they had recently busted two cases wherein fliers had prepared special jackets which had cavities to conceal gold bars in them. "Usually gold flier hide gold in their luggage that too in smaller quantities, but in two recent cases fliers, both foreign nationals (from Hongkong and Kenya) audaciously concealed gold bars in jackets they wore. What is more worrying is how these fliers managed to clear the security check and enter the flights from their boarding destinations, with huge kilograms of gold on person" said an AIU official.

He added, the carriers and were promised huge commission per kilogram of gold smuggled in India.

"On the other hand, another worrying trend we have come across is that earlier female carriers used to carry contraband capsules in their rectums, but now they are carrying gold. Couple of months ago a racket of gold smugglers was busted after a Delhi-based woman was arrested who had allegedly trained the carriers, including women, to carry smuggle gold in rectum and other body parts. The woman had trained over 100-125 carriers," said the officer.

"The gangs continue to smuggle gold and are finding innovative ways of smuggling. Large numbers of "Carriers' are sent abroad who smuggles gold in the country while returning. These carriers are mainly who are good looking, English speaking and educated who are in need of money, this also includes women. A probe in past cases has revealed that most gangs are operating from free marketplaces like Dubai, Riyadh, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Bangkok. There are several jewelers and other businessmen who hire these carriers to bring the gold for making profits," said another AIU official

The AIU officials say the smugglers would always find innovative ways to smuggle the gold and hence they have to continue being vigilant and alert about the new smuggling methods being adopted. "Human intelligence and profiling help us to identify these carriers," he added.

INGENUITY AT PLAY

• AIU officers recently exposed two cases wherein fliers wore special jackets with cavities to conceal gold bars
   
• The carriers even managed to clear the security check at boarding points
   
• There is a worrying trend of women concealing gold in their rectum 
   
• Also, more and more women are being trained to hide gold in body parts
   
• A woman who was recently busted said she had trained several carriers