DRI seizes 9.3 kg of smuggled gold worth ₹6.08 crore at KIA Bengaluru

DRI officials also seized 3,510 sticks of e-cigarettes, valued at ₹73.7 lakh, from their baggage.

Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a gold smuggling racket following the arrest of six passengers at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru, in separate cases. In total, they seized 9.3 kg of foreign origin gold worth ₹6.08 crore.

This is the biggest such recovery in recent times. The gold was being smuggled into Bengaluru from Malaysia and Sharjah (UAE), sources said.

In the first case, DRI officials, in coordination with Customs officials at KIA, intercepted four passengers who landed at KIA from Kuala Lumpur by a Malaysian Airways flight. They had concealed gold in paste form, weighing 2,632 gram, in their inner wear. The extracted gold from the paste was valued at ₹1.42 crore.

DRI officials also seized 3,510 sticks of e-cigarettes, valued at ₹73.7 lakh, from their baggage. The four passengers were arrested. DRI is trying to trace the people behind the racket.

In another case, the officials caught two passengers who arrived at KIA from Kuala Lumpur on a Malaysian Airways flight. They had concealed gold in paste form, weighing 2,854 gram, in their socks. The gold was valued at ₹1.55 crore.

The arrested passengers are suspected to be mules who had gone to Malaysia on tourist visas. While two of them are from Tamil Nadu, the four others are from different parts of north India.

In the third incident, officials seized 3.75 kg of gold bars that were concealed in the luggage cabin above the seats during a routine check of a flight that arrived from Sharjah (UAE). Officials suspect that the passengers smuggling the gold abandoned the contraband in the flight after noticing staff checking luggage outside.