DRI busts gold smuggling racket, arrests 2 women

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: A major gold smuggling racket that illegally brought in more than 9 kilograms of gold worth over Rs 6.2 crore in two different incidents within three hours, was busted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Thursday.

According to the officials, around 6.8 kg of crude gold was recovered from two women passengers, while another 2.18 kg of gold was discovered in the restroom of an aircraft.

Based on specific intelligence that a syndicate would conceal gold inside the aircraft during its international leg for further retrieval, the officers of DRI, Bengaluru, searched through the Thai Airways flight from Bangkok which landed at the KIA here.

The search resulted in recovery of 6.834 kg of gold in bar form and crude form concealed inside abandoned handbags on the flight, the sources said. Based on the documents found inside the handbags and inputs from the crew, the officers identified the passengers who left the bags and intercepted them.

After detailed interrogation, the passengers allegedly accepted that the gold was concealed by them inside the craft. The gold was valued at Rs 4.77 crore by the government-certified assayer. The passengers were arrested and further investigation is in progress.

Inquiries revealed that the accused women were from West Bengal and Haryana aged around 40 years. The duo had travelled to Thailand on tourist visa and based on the instruction of a person they met, had agreed to smuggle the gold for a commission.

The duo was supposed to handover the gold to a contact outside the airport who escaped soon after the duo was detained, the officials said.