Close on the heels of the huge haul of 63 kg of gold in Visakhapatnam on June 22 night by the Customs and DRI sleuths, the Customs officials seized about 3 kg of gold from a passenger arriving from Dubai in an international flight at Shamshabad airport on Thursday. There is a similarity in both cases.
It seems the smugglers have changed their modus operandi. The precious metal is no longer being smuggled in the shape of biscuits or bars. Now gold is being moulded and shaped to look like spare parts of electronic items. The original parts are replaced by the shaped gold and being smuggled.
In the Shamshabad airport case, it is learnt that the gold was moulded and shaped as the parts of a table fan.
In Visakhapatnam, 56 passengers were detained from the Silk Air flight from Singapore, Malindo from Malaysia and Air Asia from Malaysia, on the June 22 night and
63 kg of gold was seized.
Each of the passengers was carrying at least three electronic items in which at least 600 gm to 1 kg of gold was concealed, Principal Commissioner of Customs, C. Rajendiran.
According to him, there appears to be a full-fledged industry in Malaysia, where gold biscuits and bars are moulded and shaped into parts of electronic items and then the originals are replaced by the fabricated stuff.
Officials surprised
In the Visakhapatnam seizure, the DRI officials were surprised to find the heating rods of induction cookers, pulleys of washing machine and magnetic core in speakers replaced by gold moulded in that shape.
“For further deep concealment, the smugglers coated the gold with mercury coloured paint to make them look like aluminium parts,” said Assistant Commissioner of Customs S.K. Dutta.
In the new modus operandi, the Customs officials face a major hurdle. “Unless and until we have concrete information on the movement, we cannot detain a passenger and break his or her electronic item. One miscalculation might land us in problem. A genuine passenger can go to any level to sue us,” said the Principal Commissioner.