Five passengers who arrived from Dubai were booked for gold smuggling by the Hyderabad Customs Department at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) coordinated with the Customs officials in the arrests. The passengers arrived by FlyDubai flight FZ-8779.
The passengers were carrying 2.5 kg of gold worth around Rs 1.15 crore, concealed in mixer-grinder motors and cutting appliances. The smuggled gold was found in their baggage. The passengers have been detained by the authorities and further investigation is in progress.
In another case, on March 30, the Hyderabad Customs in coordination with the CISF booked a male passenger for smuggling of foreign currency. The passenger was attempting to depart by flight FZ-8776 to Dubai. The passenger was carrying 30,000 US Dollars in his hand baggage. The currency, equivalent to Rs 21,48,000, was seized under the Customs Act, 1962.
Around a week ago, a passenger was arrested by Customs officials in Hyderabad for carrying foreign currency worth Rs 1.3 crore. The passenger was intercepted by the CISF when he was boarding a flight to Dubai from the RGIA. The case had made it to the headlines as the passenger had concealed the foreign currency in packets of savouries in his baggage. The foreign currency the passenger was carrying included US Dollars, Saudi and Omani Riyals, Kuwaiti Dinars and UAE Dirhams.
Very often, passengers are flagged while trying to smuggle in gold when travelling to India, and foreign currency when travelling abroad. In several instances, CISF sleuths on tip-offs from Customs officials intercept passengers who try to smuggle the goods in innovative ways. On March 21, Customs officials in Chennai booked two men for trying to smuggle gold from Dubai by hiding it under their wigs. Visuals that emerged show one of them removing his wig and peeling off a packet that held the gold paste from his partly-tonsured head.