Woman, among 8, held at airport for smuggling gold

Over three kg of gold worth Rs one crore was seized from eight people, including a woman, at the international airport here in three separate cases, Customs officials said today.

Based on a tip-off, checks were intensified and the gold was seized between May 3-7. Officials also claimed that a gold-smuggling racket being run from Dubai was also busted.

They said the woman had arrived from the Gulf nation yesterday and her baggage was scanned. The check yielded gold sheets concealed in cardboard boxes containing toys, the officials said.

The gold weighed 1,099 gms, they said.

On being questioned, the woman confessed to gold smuggling and operating for a gang in Dubai, the officials said, adding, she was immediately arrested.

Based on her confession, six other persons were arrested outside the airport in connection with the racket, they said.

The modus operandi of the racketeer was to lure first-time travellers, preferably women, by promising them jobs in Dubai and sponsoring their flight tickets from India to Dubai and back, the officials said.

In this case, the woman was instructed to hand over the gold to an elderly man outside the airport, and he would courier the consignment to Mumbai, they said.

The six others caught outside the airport admitted to having received five such consignments, the officials said.

In another case, a ground-handling staff was spotted hurling a packet beneath the aero-bridge near the parking lot and running away, they said.

The packet was recovered and it contained 14 gold bars weighing 1,632 gm, the officials said.

The ground-handling staff member, who was subsequently arrested, said he was to hand over the packet he had received from a passenger to a Hyderabad-based smuggler, they said.

In yet another case, five gold bars weighing 615 gm were recovered from a disposable bag abandoned by an unidentified person, the officials said.