The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the airport customs has recovered gold worth ₹80.47 lakh in two separate cases at Mumbai airport.
In the first case, on the basis of specific information, AIU officers found six cut pieces of gold bars concealed in a hollow pipe under a seat of Air India flight(AI-984), which arrived from Dubai on Tuesday night.
The recovered gold was worth ₹34.32 lakh and weighed 1.198 kg. “The gold was seized under reasonable belief that it was smuggled into India in contravention of provisions of the Customs Act, 1962,” an official said.
In the second case, on the intervening night of September 25 and 26, the AIU on the basis of intelligence and profiling intercepted Wouroud Fadlalmoula, a Sudanese national who arrived from Dubai by Jet Airways flight (9W-543). AIU officials intercepted her after she passed through the Green Channel and proceeded toward the exit gate to leave the airport.
A personal search resulted in the recovery of 13 gold bars of 10 tola each and one cut piece of a 22-carat gold bar with 999% purity. A customs official said, “The gold weighed 1.61 kg and was valued at ₹46.15 lakh. The gold was concealed in a small bag tied to Ms. Fadlalmoula’s scarf.” The gold was seized and the woman was placed under arrest.
This is third case of gold smuggling being detected by the airport customs. On September 12, the AIU recovered gold bars worth over ₹1 crore from the immigration washroom at Terminal 2.
Based on profiling, AIU officials followed Mohammed Irshad, a Kasaragod resident who arrived on a Jet Airways flight from Dubai, and caught him after he dropped the gold into the dustbin. Customs officials said the passenger was seen dropping five packets containing 32 gold bars of 0.116 kg each, collectively weighing 3.729 kg, into the garbage bin inside the washroom of the immigration hall. The gold was valued at ₹1.04 crore.
In August, two passengers arriving from Bangkok were arrested with gold bars worth ₹1.67 crore by AIU officials, just as they were about to exit the airport. A third person, who was to collect the gold, was also caught. This led to the recovery of six gold bars weighing 1 kg each and a cut gold bar with a foreign mark. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence too had recovered 36 kg of gold worth ₹10 crore, smuggled in two air courier consignments from Hong Kong in August.
