Directorate of Revenue Intelligence busts major gold smuggling racket

The Delhi unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has confirmed busting a major gold smuggling racket involving smuggling of around 7000 kilograms of gold worth more than Rs. 2000 crore in last two and half years.

This probably is the single biggest case of detection of gold smuggling by any agency in India.

This case came to light when officers of the Delhi unit seized ten kilograms of gold at the domestic cargo terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport during the intervening night of September 1-2.

The seized gold bars of 24 carat purity were admittedly smuggled into India through the Indo-Myanmar land borders and were brought to Delhi from Guwahati by a domestic flight.

The market value of the total seized goods is around Rs. 3.1 crore. Involvement of the employees of the airlines and others is being investigated by DRI.

Two of the accused, a Guwahati-based businessman and his Delhi-based aide, have been arrested by DRI in Delhi and remanded to judicial custody.

The Guwahati-based businessman was also involved in many cases of smuggling of gold in the past, wherein 37 kilograms of gold worth Rs.9 crore was seized by DRI. He was also arrested by the Guwahati Unit of DRI in February, 2015 for smuggling gold of about 12 kgs and later was released on bail.

Intelligence also reveals that huge quantities of gold bars of foreign origin are being smuggled from Myanmar through Indo-Myanmar border adjacent to Moreh in the state of Manipur and from the Zokhawthar area in Mizoram.