News of Monday, 16th October 2023
Gold smuggling scam: 59 kg gold, crores of rupees and foreign currency seized: 25 arrested including 5 Africans
DRI is located in Mumbai, Nagpur, Chennai, Trichy, Varanasi
New Delhi, Date 16: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence i.e. DRI has got a big success. DRI has arrested 25 accused including 5 African nationals and seized gold, dollars and Indian currency in three separate operations. DRI conducted this operation in Chennai, Trichy, Mumbai, Nagpur and Varanasi. The gang used to smuggle gold into India by road, air and sea, and made a profit by melting it and selling it to jewellers.
First, the Chennai and Trichy teams of DRI arrested 8 accused and seized 25 kg of gold worth Rs 15 crore. Along with this, cash worth Rs 56.3 lakh was also found.
The Chennai team of DRI received information that some gold smugglers have brought gold from Sri Lanka to Nagapattinam area of Tamil Nadu by water and are taking it to Chennai by road. After this information, the agency nabbed two people who were delivering gold in a car in front of the Madras High Court.
11.794 kg of gold and 2.3 lakh rupees in cash were found from both of them. After interrogating both, 3.3 kg of gold was seized by raiding the place of the person who melted the gold and sold it to the jeweller. 54 lakh rupees were also found from there.
Following a similar operation, DRI also arrested two people in Trichy along with 7.55 kg of gold, which was being hidden in a car and was being taken to Chennai. This gold was also smuggled to India by sea from Sri Lanka.
Apart from this, the team caught two people smuggling gold from Malaysia at Chennai airport. Both the accused had melted the gold and hid it in their underwear. 2.97 kg gold worth Rs 1.73 crore was found from both of them.
Apart from this, the DRI team in Mumbai arrested eight accused and seized 2.1 kg gold, foreign currency worth Rs 3.62 crore and Indian currency worth Rs 2.95 crore. Among the arrested accused are four African women. According to the agency, women from Kenya and Tanzania used to smuggle gold into India and sell it to jewellers. After this information, the agency raided a jewelery shop in Mumbai and seized 2.1 kg of gold. Foreign currency worth Rs 84.15 lakh and Indian currency worth Rs 2.32 crore were also recovered from the accused. On questioning them, it was found that these African women used to smuggle gold to India.
Following this information, the agency raided two hotels in South Mumbai from where these women were running their network. During the raid, foreign currency worth Rs 2.78 crore and Indian currency worth Rs 63.07 lakh, earned by selling gold, were recovered from these accused women.