Chennai: In a major setback for a gold smuggling cartel, DRI officials intercepted and busted an operation that involved smuggling the precious metal inside sealed mobile phone cartons.
Acting on a tip, sleuths with the enforcement agency arrived at the cargo clearance area of the Chennai Airport on Monday morning and swooped down on a small crate that contained 7 packed cases of high-end smartphones.
On opening the warranty-sealed cartons, they found that each of them contained three 1 kg gold biscuits, concealed behind the mobile phone itself. This is not the first time that phone pouches and boxes have been used to smuggle gold but this is one of the rare times when such a large consignment has been moved using a cargo plane.
Airport sources said in all, 21 kg of gold biscuits, worth about `6.5 crore was recovered in the raid.
There are also suspicions that the smuggling chain has some links with contract cargo bay workers and loaders. “We suspect that they have been pilfering these phone packets, removing the gold and slipping it out,” said an official with the AAI cargo section.
28/01/14 New Indian Express
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Acting on a tip, sleuths with the enforcement agency arrived at the cargo clearance area of the Chennai Airport on Monday morning and swooped down on a small crate that contained 7 packed cases of high-end smartphones.
On opening the warranty-sealed cartons, they found that each of them contained three 1 kg gold biscuits, concealed behind the mobile phone itself. This is not the first time that phone pouches and boxes have been used to smuggle gold but this is one of the rare times when such a large consignment has been moved using a cargo plane.
Airport sources said in all, 21 kg of gold biscuits, worth about `6.5 crore was recovered in the raid.
There are also suspicions that the smuggling chain has some links with contract cargo bay workers and loaders. “We suspect that they have been pilfering these phone packets, removing the gold and slipping it out,” said an official with the AAI cargo section.
28/01/14 New Indian Express
