Gold smuggling racket by TN gang via Myanmar border busted

An international gold smuggling racket operated by a Tamil Nadu-based gang through Indo-Myanmar land border has been busted by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, with the arrest of a man hiding nine kilos of the yellow metal valued at Rs 2.76 crore.
Maria Selvaraj was arrested here today and 9.120 kg of gold with foreign markings 'Valcambi Suisse,' in the form of gold bars in nine packets valued at Rs 2.67 crore seized from him, the central agency said.
He was held on arrival by the Howrah-Chennai Mail and was remanded to judicial custody, DRI said in a release.
Selvaraj claimed he had merely acted as a courier for monetary consideration and was not aware of who the actual owner of the gold bars was.

He also admitted that the smuggled gold was handed over to him by a person of Myanmar-origin at Kolkata, DRI said.
The agency said that based on intelligence inputs, it detected that smuggled gold was being brought here from Indo-Myanmar land borders with the assistance of locals.
"DRI Chennai has been working on intelligence regarding gold smuggling through air and sea ports and particularly at Indo-Myanmar land border through transit points by a gang based out of Tamil Nadu," it said.
The agency said it developed "specific intelligence" about unscrupulous elements operating from Chennai "who are involved in smuggling gold through Myanmar-India land border." A further probe is on, DRI said.