Gold smuggling racket busted, seven arrested

Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has busted a gold smuggling racket from the porous Indo-Myanmar border and recovered 32.287 kg of the precious metal worth Rs 10.56 crore, an official said Sunday.

Seven people have been arrested in this connection, he said.

Twelve consignments had earlier arrived on Concor Air, which handles the domestic air cargo, he said.

Acting on a specific tip-off, searches were carried out at the Concor Air's facility here on Friday when the racket came to light, the official said.

The suspicious consignments were claimed to be of jewellery but an investigation revealed that they contained foreign-marked gold bars, he said.

"The consignments were found to be containing foreign- marked gold bars, including gold bars smuggled through Indo- Myanmar border and unmarked melted gold bars of 999 purity," the official said.

The seized yellow metal was valued at Rs 10.56 crore, he said, adding that seven people were arrested.

The probe revealed that the gold bars were apparently smuggled into the country through various ports and then brought to Mumbai via domestic airlines to avoid stringent checking at the city's two ports, the official said.

The smuggled gold was brought here from various domestic airports, including Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Chennai and Kolkata, among others, he added.