Golden mobile cover! Smuggler in soup at Bengaluru airport

BENGALURU:  The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has caught a 30-year-old flyer redhanded in his attempt to smuggle 1.5 kg of gold from Dubai into Bengaluru.  The gold is worth nearly Rs 50 lakh. He had cleverly made a mobile phone case out of gold paste and placed his mobile in it.

According to informed sources, the seizure was made by DRI officials on the night of  June 14 following a tip-off that a passenger on a flight from Dubai was bringing gold to the Kempegowda International Airport.  “As soon as the passenger (name withheld), a native of Kasaragod in Kerala, alighted from the aerobridge of the flight he was traveling, officials were waiting for him. He was taken by them immediately and subjected to a complete screening along with all his baggage. The phone case weighed extra heavy and officials dismantled it to find gold in paste form inside a plastic case,” sources said.

The person had placed his phone in it to make it look convincing. “It may escape the regular baggage screening process and be mistaken for a mobile case cover only,” a source said.  It has been learnt that the flyer had planned to carry the gold from Bengaluru to Kerala by bus.  An unknown person was supposed to meet him at his house later and collect the package from him, a source said. He has been booked under Section 111 of the Customs Act.