Guwahati: The Mumbai Airport Customs seized 61 kg of gold worth Rs 32 crore in two separate raids, said a senior Customs official on Sunday.
At least seven passengers were arrested in relation to the two seizures.
According to the officer, this was the greatest seizure in a single day ever recorded by Mumbai Airport Customs. Two female travellers and five men were arrested on Friday.
In the first instance, four travellers of Indian descent who had just arrived from Tanzania were discovered to be carrying illicit gold in the shape of 1 kg bars that had been cleverly concealed in multi-pocket waist belts. A total of 53 kg of gold worth Rs 28.17 crore was recovered from the four passengers.
During the transit period at Doha airport, a person of Sudanese nationality gave the passengers the carefully manufactured belts containing hidden UAE-made gold bars.
A systematic profiling of suspect passengers on important flights out of specific locations in Africa and the Middle East was carried out at Mumbai Airport based on the ongoing observation of suspicious flights and building on data-based analysis from earlier high-quantity gold and foreign currency seizures, according to the statement of Customs.
The pattern and method of operation noted, together with the profiling of foreign national passengers and extrapolating the tendencies, led to success in the current case of the seizure of 4.08 crores in foreign currency.
Four Indian passengers came from Doha during the operation on Qatar Airways Flight No. QR-556, which was intercepted. When questioned, it was found that they were from Tanzania.
Senior customs authorities claim that a total of 53 kg of gold was found during the personal search of the aforementioned passengers.
A specifically made belt with many pockets that was worn around their torso disguised the gold bars on their person.
According to the top customs authorities, all four of the passengers admitted to receiving the gold from an unidentified Sudanese person who was not travelling with them on the trip while they were in transit at the Doha airport.
All four passengers have been arrested, and the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate has remanded them all too judicial custody for 14 days.
Another incident included three passengers arriving from Dubai on a Vistara flight. Based on intelligence, Mumbai Airport Customs agents arrested the trio and recovered 8 kg of gold worth at Rs 3.88 crore from them. Ingeniously hidden in the waistline of the passengers’ jeans pants was gold dust in wax form.
One elderly traveller in her late sixties who was using a wheelchair was among the three passengers. All three passengers have been taken into custody and placed under arrest.
Further investigation into the matter is going on.