Smugglers exchange gold mid-air to evade customs: Officials

Airport officers stumbled upon a modus operandi by gold smugglers who travel as domestic passengers on Air India's Dubai-Visakhapatnam (via Hyderabad) international flight with a domestic stop to smuggle gold.
Customs officials also found that some smugglers had swallowed gold pieces to evade sleuths, an official said.
Principal Commissioner of Customs C Rajendiran told reporters that in 2013-14 gold seized at the Vizag Airport was 6.67 kg, valued at Rs 2.01 crore, while in 2014-15, gold seizure was 7.62 kg, valued at Rs 2.04 crore, he said.
In 2015 so far, gold seized is 11.06 kg, valued at Rs 3.06 crore, he said.

Rajendiran said that the prime modus operandi is concealing gold in the form of bars (biscuits) in the body to evade custom officials, the customs official said.
Most of the gold has been making its way from Dubai through Air India flight (AI 952) and the Hyderabad transit point is the most vulnerable area in gold smuggling racket, he said.

Smugglers bring gold from Dubai and give it mid-air to domestic passengers travelling between Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, since domestic passengers can escape from the terminal with nominal scanning, he said.
Though Visakhapatnam Airport has been operating three international flights namely Dubai-Vizag, Singapore-Vizag and Kuala Lumpur-Vizag, most gold smugglers refer to take Dubai-Vizag flights.

"We have decided to strengthen scanning of domestic passengers depending on suspicion and passenger profile. Most gold smugglers belonged to either Hyderabad or Kerala," he said.
Airport customs sleuths have arrested 17 people in connection with gold smuggling since 2013 and Rs 3.75 crore of customs duty has been collected, he said.