MANGALURU: Air customs and preventive wing of Mangaluru customs commissionerate need to be a step or two ahead of gold smugglers. Having booked 52 cases in the current fiscal at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA), seizing a total 17.7 kg of gold up to February 11, they are faced with the need to redouble their efforts to foil novel methods that smugglers constantly employ to smuggle gold into the country.
Unconventional thinking is the need-of-the-hour to be a step ahead of smugglers, said Joannes George, joint commissioner of customs. With MIA being one of the major entry points for smuggled gold into India due to its geographical proximity to districts in neighbouring Kerala, which are notorious for their gold smuggling rackets , it is this constant vigil that has helped customs detect and seize gold, he said.
Noting that it is a game of cat and mouse with the smugglers, George said due to the tight vigil maintained by the customs personnel at MIA, the department was able to check the activities of smugglers who had come out with novel modus operandi to bring in gold from Saudi Arabia and UAE. Gold seized at MIA included unusual methods that offenders adopted to hide gold, which included hiding it under a wig and even inside the rectum in oval-shaped capsules.
Other methods of concealment included converting gold into paste and hiding it under the sole and in specially stitched pockets in pants, underwear and inside kneecaps, George said. They also attempted to smuggle gold by hiding it inside toys, umbrellas, speakers, talcum powder, as metal supporting frame of suitcase, and even as strips within measuring tape.
Baswaraj Nalegave, commissioner of customs, said the department sensitizes officers at MIA on various modus operandi that smugglers adopt, directing them to step up their vigil to take on challenges they posed, by constantly evolving their tactics. “We do not focus on a particular MO given lengths that smugglers go to bring in gold through the green channel,” he said. From April 2019 to January 2020, the air customs at MIA has seized gold weighing 17.7kg worth Rs 6.4 crore from a total 52 smuggling cases registered, he said.
Unconventional thinking is the need-of-the-hour to be a step ahead of smugglers, said Joannes George, joint commissioner of customs. With MIA being one of the major entry points for smuggled gold into India due to its geographical proximity to districts in neighbouring Kerala, which are notorious for their gold smuggling rackets , it is this constant vigil that has helped customs detect and seize gold, he said.
Noting that it is a game of cat and mouse with the smugglers, George said due to the tight vigil maintained by the customs personnel at MIA, the department was able to check the activities of smugglers who had come out with novel modus operandi to bring in gold from Saudi Arabia and UAE. Gold seized at MIA included unusual methods that offenders adopted to hide gold, which included hiding it under a wig and even inside the rectum in oval-shaped capsules.
Other methods of concealment included converting gold into paste and hiding it under the sole and in specially stitched pockets in pants, underwear and inside kneecaps, George said. They also attempted to smuggle gold by hiding it inside toys, umbrellas, speakers, talcum powder, as metal supporting frame of suitcase, and even as strips within measuring tape.
Baswaraj Nalegave, commissioner of customs, said the department sensitizes officers at MIA on various modus operandi that smugglers adopt, directing them to step up their vigil to take on challenges they posed, by constantly evolving their tactics. “We do not focus on a particular MO given lengths that smugglers go to bring in gold through the green channel,” he said. From April 2019 to January 2020, the air customs at MIA has seized gold weighing 17.7kg worth Rs 6.4 crore from a total 52 smuggling cases registered, he said.
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