5 gold smugglers held from 3 airports

Azara/Guwahati/Jorhat, Jan 19: Gold smuggling from Assam remains a roaring, if illegal, trade, as evident from continuing seizures of the precious metal across the State.

On Friday, 3 persons were held from airports at Guwahati and Jorhat while trying to smuggle out gold. While one person – identified as Ankush Soni – was held at Lokapriya Gopith Bordoloi Intertiol (LGBI) Airport and 996 grams of gold recovered from him, two more persons – Pawan Kumar and Surinder Singh – were arrested from Rowriah airport at Jorhat and 2.36 kg gold recovered from them.

The gold recovery came within 24 hours of a similar seizure made at Silchar airport on Thursday when 14 gold biscuits weighing 2.3 kg and worth Rs 62 lakh were recovered from two persons – Abu Bakkar Siddiqui and Ahmed Syed – hailing from Tamil du. 

According to sources, several smugglers have used the same modus operandi – carrying the gold tucked in their rectums. 

Personnel of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), tasked with the airport security, held Soni at LGBI Airport in Guwahati on Friday after getting suspicious when the body metal detector gave out alarm when frisking him. On closer examition, he was found to have tucked gold in his rectum. Altogether six gold bars were recovered from him weighing 996 gram and worth Rs 30 lakh. Soni was bound for Delhi by an Indigo flight.

Similarly, CISF personnel arrested two persons – Pawan Kumar and Surinder Singh – at Rowriah airport and recovered 2.36 kg of gold worth Rs 60 lakh from them. The duo, bound for Delhi by a Jet Airways, has been handed over to Customs department. Interestingly, both Kumar and Singh had travelled from Guwahati. 

The arrest of 5 gold smugglers from three different airports of the State within a span of 24 hours has sent authorities concerned on a tizzy. While indicating how gold smuggling was getting increasingly lucrative, authorities fear this may just be the tip of the iceberg. 

Earlier, in a first of its kind recovery in this part of the country, two persons – Jafar Khan and Santosh Sagarkar – were arrested from LGBI Airport in Guwahati by CISF personnel on Sunday last after they were found carrying 1.66 kg of gold in their rectums. 

Khan was en route to Kolkata on an Air India flight (no. AI 730) and Sagarkar was scheduled to fly to the city by a Jet Airways flight. While six pieces (each weighing 166 gram) of gold weighing 996 gram were retrieved from Santosh’s rectum, another four pieces (each weighing 166 gram) of gold weighing 664 gram were extricated from Khan’s rectum.

Explaining the new method of carrying gold inside human body, sources said gold pieces are first wrapped in carbon and then a black tape is put around, before being put inside a condom. This is then inserted in the rectum. 

The latest developments follow the arrest of a senior airport mager of IndiGo airlines by sleuths of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on 29th December last year for his alleged involvement in a gold smuggling syndicate that operated out of LGBI Airport. 

Prior to that, two persons were arrested for smuggling gold. While Vijay Kumar Sharma was apprehended at LGBI Airport with 2.65 kg gold, another person Sanwarlal Sharma was held at the Indira Gandhi Intertiol Airport, Delhi by Customs officials. Sanwarlal had travelled from Guwahati airport with 2.48 kg gold. The duo had reportedly alleged that the senior airport mager of IndiGo airlines at LGBI Airport facilitated in clearing their baggage with gold bars. On further probe, DRI found the involvement of the senior airline official and arrested him.

As already reported by The Sentinel on 10th January, the gateway of Northeast is also fast emerging as a gateway for smuggling gold into the country’s mainland. After being smuggled in from Myanmar, the yellow metal is brought to the city for onward shipment to rest of the country via airways and railways. 

Government Railway Police alone had recovered 70.7 kg gold at Guwahati railway station in 2017. Also, 23 persons were arrested in connection with the recovery.

On the other hand, DRI recovered altogether 97.5 kg gold in and around the city in the last three years, besides arresting 27 persons.