Bengaluru: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Bengaluru has arrested the alleged kingpin of a gold smuggling ring in Karnataka. On February 7, the DRI arrested Shihabudheen Thadathil (45), who was involved in large-scale smuggling of the precious yellow metal in 2018, when he landed at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru from Dubai. He is a resident of Koduvally, Kozhikode district in Kerala.
According to official sources Shihabudheen had smuggled 200kg of gold through 117 passengers between July and September 2018 through KIA with the alleged collusion of some customs officers and others. The Directorate had issued a look out circular to nab him in 2018 soon after they unearthed the smuggling racket.
“Shihabudheen had devised a new modus operandi of smuggling gold by mixing it with chemicals to turn into a paste to prevent detection by the metal door frame detectors at the airports. This paste was further concealed in a nylon belt, which was strapped to the body of the carrier passengers,” the an official told The New Indian Express.
“Shihabudheen used to work in a mobile phone shop in Kozhikode before he got a job as a salesman in a hypermarket in Dubai. It was around this time that he made contact with smugglers and bought a mobile phone shop there. His network with smugglers at Calicut and Bengaluru airports by then had become big enough to facilitate gold smuggling from Dubai to India.
13/02/20 New Indian Express
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According to official sources Shihabudheen had smuggled 200kg of gold through 117 passengers between July and September 2018 through KIA with the alleged collusion of some customs officers and others. The Directorate had issued a look out circular to nab him in 2018 soon after they unearthed the smuggling racket.
“Shihabudheen had devised a new modus operandi of smuggling gold by mixing it with chemicals to turn into a paste to prevent detection by the metal door frame detectors at the airports. This paste was further concealed in a nylon belt, which was strapped to the body of the carrier passengers,” the an official told The New Indian Express.
“Shihabudheen used to work in a mobile phone shop in Kozhikode before he got a job as a salesman in a hypermarket in Dubai. It was around this time that he made contact with smugglers and bought a mobile phone shop there. His network with smugglers at Calicut and Bengaluru airports by then had become big enough to facilitate gold smuggling from Dubai to India.
13/02/20 New Indian Express
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ReplyDeleteWe can no longer believe in the integrity of customs officials employed at Kempegowda International Airport.
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