Jaipur: The recent gold seizures at Jaipur airport has revealed that smugglers have now switched to innovative ways to get the precious into the country. Officials said while smugglers used electronic items to smuggle the gold earlier, now they convert the metal into a part of the product as was seen in the seizure on Tuesday where the gold was cast in the form of a face massager making it difficult to detect.
“On Tuesday and Wednesday, we apprehended three persons who were travelling from Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Out of the three, two were smuggling the gold in radio sets while the third carried the gold in an electronic massager. Previously, when such cases were found, as soon as we would open the electronic item, we would immediately see the gold perhaps in wire or ball form. But now, the metal is converted into part of the product and fitted in it because of which it is difficult to detect,” said a customs official.
In the gold seizure couple of days back, two solid white metal rods covered with blue coloured adhesive tape were found placed in the body of a radio fixed with the help of a glue. On removing the blue tape, white metal rods of 2-inch length each having 1 cm diameter were found. When a solid rod was cut with the help of an electric cutter, gold was found reinforced inside a steel cylinder. This is the new modus operandi that the peddlers are taking.
An officer said, “The gold is covered with a casing because of which it does not even get easily detected on the screening machines and there are chances that peddlers can get away with it. It takes experience to detect the gold when the luggage is being screened and that is how it was accomplished when the precious metal was seized thrice within 24 hours. To get the gold out of the casings is also a herculean task.”
04/04/21 Times of India
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