Jaipur: Customs staff detain receivers of smuggled gold for first time

JAIPUR: Over a week ago, customs officials had seized around 600 grams of gold from a passenger who landed here and detained two persons who had come to receive the man.
According to officials, this was the first time in many years that they managed to catch the persons who were supposed to receive the gold.
During investigation, it was found that the receivers were merely cab drivers and they were still trying to connect the dots in the network.
Moreover, officials have also seen a shift from Dubai to Sharjah in the recent seizures of gold smuggling.
A customs official told TOI, “Usually, we never catch the person/persons who come to receive the gold, but in the last case we were able to.”
“The carrier did not know who he was supposed to meet but our team posing as passengers went outside the airport and detained two persons who turned out to be taxi drivers. They knew the passenger by face,” the official said.
Customs officials intercepted one passenger who arrived by Air Arabia flight from Sharjah last week. On examination of his checked-in baggage in the x-ray machine, dark images of some objects inside the electric meat grinder machine was noticed. On being inquired, the passenger denied being in possession of or carrying any such items and could not provide any satisfactory explanation.
On dismantling the machine, six solid biscuits of fine gold (of 99.99% purity) duly packed in a small black plastic box wrapped by black carbon plastic sheet of multi layers were found concealed.
Earlier too, customs officials intercepted a woman passenger and seized over 600 gram of gold from her which she had hidden in her undergarments. Prior to this, the passenger was apprehended with around 500 gram of gold.
In all these cases, the passengers landed from Sharjah in the early hours. The official added, “The smugglers keep changing their destinations and starting points. Since there was a lot of focus on Dubai, now we are getting more carriers from Sharjah. In the recent case, the passenger actually travelled from Riyadh to Sharjah and then to Jaipur to avoid detection.”