Hyderabad: Rs 52 lakh worth gold seized as RGIA witnesses new methods of smuggling

HYDERABAD: A ground handling staff working at RGIA has been arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit officials for attempting to smuggle 1.63 kg gold bars worth Rs 52.13 lakh. The accused was allegedly acting at the behest of a city-based gold smuggler, and had collected the gold from a passenger.
On May 3, around 1 am, AIU sleuths observed a ground handling staff throwing a packet into dark area beneath aero bridge and running away.

The suspect was intercepted; he was found to be an employee of Visskan Aviation Pvt Ltd working for IndiGo and had been absconding from work for last one month.
“The smuggler had sent the photograph of the passenger on WhatsApp from whom the gold was to be collected. The pax has also been identified. The accused has been arrested and his phones have been seized,” said the official. In another incident on the same day, the officials found about 615.25 gm of gold that was dumped in the flight garbage.

12 arrested in 2 days

These crimes are at bottom of a long list of gold smuggling cases busted in recent months. There has been a surge in the activity at RGIA as smugglers are supposedly adopting new techniques to avoid vigil. What has shocked the officials is that members of smuggling gang come to city from Kerala in order to execute their plan.

In just two days, the AIU officials arrested eight persons including a woman from the city and four from Kerala, for attempting to smuggle gold. However, the gang cleared five consignments in four days, prior to their arrest, and sent gold to Mumbai. On May 3, a woman passenger arrived at Shamshabad in a Dubai-bound Emirates flight was detained after her baggage containing toys, also contained metallic substances. The officials seized gold sheets weighing about 11.09 kg.

The woman confessed to being smuggling the gold. She was ordered to hand over the toy boxes to gang members who would be waiting for her outside the airport. The probe revealed that she was offered a job in Dubai by the smuggler, who posed as a manpower recruiting agent.

The gang’s target is to lure first-time female travels on pretext of providing jobs in Dubai. “The travel expenses from India to Dubai and back will be borne by smuggler. She will have to meet an elderly man outside the airport and will be taken to a nearby hotel, where gold will be retrieved to send to Mumbai,” said the official. The official said six persons including four from Kerala and two from Hyderabad have been arrested following the woman’s apprehension.