Gold smuggling racket busted at Mumbai airport, customs officer involved

A customs official was arrested after suspicion arose that he was helping a Kalina resident smuggle gold into the country at the Mumbai airport.

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The incident occurred on Tuesday when a passenger, who had flown in from Dubai was asked to reveal the contents of his bag as per reports by Hindustan Times. The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) officials noticed something suspicious in his bag during a routine X-ray scan and asked the passenger to reveal what he was carrying. But the passenger was allowed to pass after a D-batch customs official said he could leave as he had received clearance from senior officials.

His attempt to smuggle the gold into the country was thwarted after an AIU official stopped Mrinal and searched him. They later seized gold worth Rs 22 lakh and other illegal goods from his bag. The customs official who allowed him to pass and the passenger were later detained. An officer said that the screening attendant had asked the passenger to open is bag, but the officer embroiled in the controversy told the attendant that he had got a call from senior officials telling him to allow the accused to pass. After that an AIU official still checked his bag and found the gold and other illegal material in his bag.

In the passengers bag, customs officials found four iPads, two laptops, five Apple watches, three Samsung gear watches, two packets of platinum glutamine, 20 Mont Blac resin pens, 29 iPhone 8 plus phones, four cartons of Dunhill cigarettes and 25 bottles of Davidoff perfumes. The total haul was worth Rs 30 lakhs. The passenger also had two gold bangles, one gold chain and five gold bars in his pant pockets, all of which weighed 1,050 grams.

Customs officials said that the accused runs a cosmetics and perfume business in the city and had travelled to Dubai and China about 20 times in the past. Officials also said that the accused had travelled to Dubai thrice in the past month and they suspect that the accused customs officials could have helped him smuggle in contraband on these trips.

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