A senior customs official said the passengers were detained in two separate cases on Friday.
#I WILL SEE | 61 kg gold valued at Rs 32 crore seized at Mumbai airport. 7 defendants were arrested, including 5 men and 2 women. The gold bars were concealed on his body in a specially designed belt, with multiple pockets, wrapped around his torso: Mumbai Airport Customs pic.twitter.com/TrGP9Rvx8I
— ANI (@ANI) November 13, 2022
The gold bars were hidden on his body in a specially designed belt with multiple pockets, officials said, adding that it was the highest single-day seizure in the history of airport customs from Bombay.
In the first case, four passengers of Indian nationality, who landed from Tanzania, were found in possession of smuggled gold in the form of 1 kg bars cleverly hidden in specially designed waist belts with multiple pockets, reports the IANS news agency.
“A total of 53 kg (12, 13, 14 and 14) of gold valued at Rs 28.17 crore were recovered from the four passengers. The specially designed belts with UAE-made gold bars hidden in the ‘inside were handed over to passengers by a Sudanese national at Doha Airport during transit time,’ said the customs official.
The customs department said that during the operation, four Indian passengers arriving from Doha on the Qatar Airways flight were intercepted. On investigation, it was found that they came from Tanzania. During the personal search of the said passengers, a total of 53 kg of gold (12, 13, 14 and 14) were recovered.
The gold bars were hidden on his body in a specially designed belt, with multiple pockets, wrapped around his torso.
“During interrogation, the four passengers confessed that they were handed the gold in transit at Doha Airport by an unknown Sudanese national who had not traveled with them on the flight. The four passengers have been arrested and detained at 14 days of judicial custody by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,” the official said, IANS news agency reported.
Meanwhile, in another case, based on intelligence, Mumbai airport officials seized 8 kg of gold worth Rs 3.88 crore from three passengers. They arrived from Dubai via Vistara flight.
