DRI seizes 50kg gold from three containers at Nehru port

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized nearly 50kg of gold from three containers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The gold, valued at around Rs 12 crore, was hidden inside air conditioners, sources said. On Friday night, a container bearing consignments for Mumbai were raided by DRI officials.

“The ACs from O’General company were all packed, but according to our intelligence, gold was being smuggled inside the ACs. When we opened the compressors, the gold nuggets were concealed within,” said an official from the DRI.

On Saturday morning, two more containers were raided, officials said. “According to our inputs, there were several consignments in Mumbai and Chennai. While our teams are investigating in Chennai, we have raided three containers till now,” the official said.

Out of the three containers, the first resulted in recovery of 15kg gold and the other two had 27kg of gold, DRI officials claimed. “We have seized over a 100kg gold from various places in the past 10 days. Most consignments that we raided were from Thailand. The gold has been hidden in footwear, machine parts and now ACs,” a DRI official said.

According to sources, the DRI will now investigate clearing and licensing agents to determine how the ACs containing gold were shipped.