Customs nab NRI businessman hiding gold worth Rs 3 Lakh in socks

Non-resident Indian (NRI) and businessman Chirag Patel was arrested by Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) officials for allegedly carrying undeclared goods to the tune of Rs 31 lakh while exiting the green channel at the city's international airport yesterday. The businessman arrived in Mumbai from the US via Dubai on an Emirates flight at 4 am and was intercepted by an AIU batch led by assistant commissioner Sameer Wankhede, who had received a tip-off about Patel.u00a0

The officials detained Patel and a personal check was conducted. Officials said that during the search, they found gold worth Rs 3 lakh concealed in his socks and $14,000 (or Rs 8 lakh) in cash in his luggage. He was also wearing a high-end wristwatch worth Rs 20 lakh. He was held for trying to evade duty on goods by not declaring the goods. Patel is the CEO of a leading pharmaceutical firm with offices in the city and California in the US.u00a0

9-kg party drugs seized
AIU officials, on the same morning, also arrested a Gambian woman Nana Mode (30), with 9-kg of party drugs, worth around Rs 1.5 crore in the international market. Mode, a data entry clerk by profession was on her way to Lusaka via Delhi and was supposed to be flying with Ethiopian airlines. Suspecting something amiss, officials took Mode to a special enclosure where her luggage was checked. During the search, Customs officials found that she had hidden the drugs in 124 packets.u00a0