NEW DELHI: As gold prices exceed the Rs 61,000 per gram mark, the smuggling of the yellow metal has risen considerably with smugglers adopting innovative means to give a slip to the authorities. While airports are the perfect place to smuggle gold as powder or granules in a paste-like substance, the eastern frontier sees gold biscuits as a preferred form for smuggling.
In two separate incidents at Chennai International Airport last week, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 23.34 kg of smuggled foreign gold valued at Rs 14.43 crore and foiled an attempt to smuggle foreign gold into the country.
On May 8, the DRI officers caught a passenger coming from Dubai via Colombo, carrying 13.28 kg of foreign origin worth Rs 8.28 crore. Whereas, on May 11, a Sri Lankan national was intercepted at Chennai airport coming from Colombo for carrying gold in paste form, weighing 10.06 kg and worth Rs 6.15 crore.
In the last fortnight, the Border Security Force has seized gold biscuits worth over Rs 10 crore foiling more than six attempts to smuggle gold near the border in North 24 Parganas of West Bengal. In one of the incidents last week, the BSF apprehended two smugglers along with 52 gold biscuits worth Rs 4.24 crore at ICP Petrapole in the same district.
The consignment was seized from two passengers travelling from Bangladesh to India through the Royal Friendship International Passenger Bus, which operates from Agartala via Dhaka to Kolkata. Mumbai airport has emerged as the most popular entry point for gold smugglers.
A seizure of 604kg of yellow metal valued at Rs 360 crore at the Mumbai international airport last year till February this year has earned it the top spot in India for smuggling, beating national capital Delhi, which seized 374kg and Chennai 306kg, as per the data from the finance ministry.
Though the airports in the south Indian cities of Chennai, Kozhikode and Hyderabad have also been favourite gateways of smugglers, with the customs officials being issued alert advisories, the overall seizures have been low last year compared to Mumbai and Delhi.