Gold Smugglers prefer to fly in fully booked flights: AIU

Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Mumbai airport’s customs has revealed certain flights have been frequented by gold smugglers caught in the past three months. Officials also said smugglers prefer flights that have maximum seats booked, which could be the reason these flights are preferred by them.

Smugglers are of the idea that when a full passenger plane lands, there’s a large crowd at the airport, which gives them a chance to leave the airport unchecked.

The two cases registered in the wee hours of Monday, too, seem to say the same. Gold worth Rs 1.22 crore was seized from Air India’s 984 flights that arrived from Dubai. The officials say there are five such flights that top the chart of frequent smugglers.

AIU officers rummaged AI 984, which resulted in the recovery of 20 gold bars and one crude gold chain totally weighing 2.362 kilograms valued at Rs 71,66,308, which was concealed in a fabric belt and placed inside a hollow pipe beneath a passenger seat.

In a second case Fatmith Raseena Mohammed was intercepted through profiling. The passenger’s personal search resulted in the recovery of fourteen gold bars of ten tolas each weighing 1.632 kg.

The market price of these gold bars is Rs 49, 51,488.