BENGALURU: Despite a three-fold increase in gold smuggling activities via air to Bengaluru seen in the last financial year, the first quarter of this financial year has indicated a declining trend. What stands out though are the numerous innovations adopted by smugglers in sneaking in gold into the city via Kempegowda International Airport.
While 20.039 kgs of gold valued at Rs 6.13 crore were seized from April to June 2018, just 3.8 kgs of gold valued at Rs1.21 crore were seized during the same period this year. Additional commissioner of customs, Harsh Vardha Umre, said, “We detected 15 instances of smuggling in the first quarter, compared to the 20 such incidents around this time the previous year. However, what really astounds customs officials are the innovations by smugglers to make ‘carriers’ transport gold.”
Concealing gold in the batteries of speakers, placing them below the seat in an aircraft for the next passenger to collect, hiding gold bars inside the armrest of a chair with a nylon thread left hanging out a little for the next carrier to collect, are among the new tactics in this three-month period.
Narrating one incident that was quite stunning, Umre recalls an incident involving a flight from Dubai to Bengaluru on June 10. Passenger Reddy Bethireddy concealed nearly 1.5 kg of gold bars beneath the seat of the aircraft. He alighted at Bengaluru while passenger Samudra Reddy, who boarded the same flight to Hyderabad, was supposed to collect it.
“We were tipped off by customs officials at Goa as well as by the behaviour of the passengers, which was strange. A photograph of an aircraft seat was recovered from his person, and we understood what he had done,” he added.
Since the flight was about to depart, a customs officer boarded it immediately and positioned himself in a seat from where he could observe all the passengers. “He found Samudra Reddy behaving suspiciously and he was caught redhanded,” Umre said.
Customs officials rummage through all parts of aircrafts thoroughly, particularly when it arrive from an international destination and will run as a domestic one next. “Some aircrafts are huge, and it is tough to check every part,” Umre added.
Gold biscuits hidden in the battery of a Bluetooth speaker by passenger Ibrahim Mozhikkal arriving from Bahrain on May 19 was another novelty officials chanced upon. Other forms of smuggling such as concealing pieces of gold in the rectum or in one’s check-in bag have been noticed too.
Who is a carrier?
Carriers are people hailing from the lower-income category who volunteer to transport goods on behalf of smugglers. To entice them to carry out this risky act, smugglers usually give them free airfare and `10,000 in cash as compensation. Smugglers use them to avoid paying the customs duty on gold. Almost 70% of the gold smuggling that enters the city is from the Middle-East, while Sri Lanka, Bengaluru, Singapore and Malaysia contribute the rest.
Three-fold surge
During the financial year 2017-2018, nearly 100 kg of gold (valued at Rs 30.07 crore), had been seized at the airport as compared to the 32.87 kg (Rs 10.36 cr) in the previous financial year. The number of cases booked went up to 117 too from 78 earlier.