Thursday, June 25, 2020

Amid COVID, Smugglers Are Using Repatriation Flights To Smuggle Gold, 7 Cases Busted In 3 Days

The world as we know it has come to a standstill and we are only learning to live life in the new normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it appears like it is business as usual for the gold smugglers.

Not only that they haven't slowed down but have picked up. And in the past three days alone seven of them have been caught at various airports in Kerala with gold worth lakhs.

On Thursday, a woman passenger was apprehended at the Kochi Airport with nearly 250 grams of gold, worth around Rs 10 lakhs, which she was trying to sneak in, hiding inside her clothes. The woman, a native of Thrissur had arrived in Kochi on a chartered flight of Gulf Air from Bahrain.

According to locals media reports, the woman is believed to be a part of the gold smuggling racket and had made frequent international flights. Since early this week there has been a spike in the number of gold smuggling attempts, and the authorities believe that the smugglers are using people who have lost their jobs as carriers on repatriation flights.

The smuggling techniques have also evolved and they are resorting to hiding gold in date seeds, bra straps, belt buckles, shoe soles, sausages and even gold paste.
On Sunday, three people from the same flight that landed in Kannur Airport were apprenticed for smuggling gold. According to reports, since last week more than 5 kgs of gold have been seized at the four international airports in Kerala. 1.25 kg of gold was seized from a passenger from Sharjah who arrived on an Air Arabia flight. The gold was hidden in the passenger’s underwear.
25/06/20 Bobins Abraham/India Times
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