1kg gold dumped in Mangalore airport toilet drain seized

MANGALORE: Officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a gold-smuggling racket operating between Mangalore, Kozhikode and Dubai with the arrest of an airport cleaning staff and another person on Tuesday.
They seized gold worth Rs 31.64 lakh — a gold bar weighing a kilogram and two pellets weighing 115 grams each.
Based on a tip-off, the officers apprehended Ganesh, 22, a cleaning staff who had removed the drain cover inside a toilet in the airport to retrieve the gold dumped inside.During interrogation, Ganesh confessed that a passenger, who arrived in Air India Express Flight No.IX-384 on Tuesday, had dumped the gold to be retrieved by the cleaning staff. Ganesh, a resident of Karambar, Bajpe, was asked to fish out the gold and hand it over to a person identified as Naushad waiting at the parking area of the airport.
DRI officials picked up Naushad and questioned him. He revealed that the gold was dropped by a smuggler operating between Dubai and Kozikode. The two men were arrested and produced before the court. DRI officials said investigation was underway to identify other members of the gang and the kingpin of this operation.
The involvement of airport staff came to the fore after a mule dumped 2 kg of gold inside a dustbin in the toilet at the airport immigration hall last month.
Sameer Mohammed, 28, from Kasaragod, had arrived from Dubai on the 10pm Air India Express flight. Before proceeding towards immigration counters, Sameer entered the toilet with a packet in his hand. DRI officers noticed this and prevented him from leaving the airport. They found that Sameer had dumped two gold bars weighing a kilogram each in the toilet dustbin.
Sources in DRI said seizure of illegal gold imports had jumped 534% in 2013 - 1,267 kg from just 200 kg in 2012. The reason: the UPA had cracked down on the flow of gold into the country and had hiked import duty on gold to 10%. The government had also mandated that gold importers re-exported 20% of the gold thus imported. DRI and customs officials said this caused gold smuggling cases to spike.
Recent seizures
* In April, DRI seized 3,206 grams of gold valued at Rs 93.63 lakh from a man and woman arriving from Abu Dhabi via Muscat
* In March, customs found gold worth Rs 15.78 lakh concealed in the baggage of two passengers coming from Dubai
* In February, customs seized a 1kg gold bar and a silver paint coated circular gold piece weighing 1,116.40 grams and valued at Rs 34.58 lakh. In that month alone, 2,191.2 grams of gold worth Rs 65.29 was seized in three separate cases