Ahmedabad:

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths nabbed two members of a Ahmedabad based International gold smuggling syndicate from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport here and recovered foreign currencies including US Dollars, Euro and Thai Baht worth around Rs 75 lakh from their hand bags.

A DRI official today said that specific intelligence was developed by the DRI’s Zonal Unit, Ahmedabad that a Ahmedabad based gold smuggling syndicate would be attempting to smuggle huge amount of foreign currencies out of India to Bangkok.
‘It was further gathered that this smuggling syndicate would be sending two passengers namely Parshottam Rajani and Rajkumar Tharwani to Bangkok as carriers for smuggling of foreign currencies by SpiceJet Flight No. SG-85 last evening from Ahmedabad Airport. Officers of DRI intercepted both passengers when they were about to board the flight. On interrogation they denied carrying any foreign currency with them. Then the DRI officers conducted thorough personal search of these passengers along with search of their checked- in-baggage. In search assorted foreign currencies like US Dollars, Euro and Thai Baht equivalent to Rs. 75 lakhs (each of the 3 foreign currencies worth around Rs 25 lakh) were found concealed in their hand bags,’ he added.

They further revealed that they were to smuggle gold into India from Bangkok purchased from these foreign currencies. They were promised Rs. 20,000 each by
this smuggling syndicate per trip to work as carriers, the officer said.

He also said that further, intelligence was developed by DRI Ahmedabad about a Mumbai based gold smuggling syndicate. DRI Ahmedabad passed on intelligence about smuggling of gold by two passengers to Air Intelligence Unit, Mumbai. Acting on the said intelligence officers of AIU, Mumbai intercepted those two paxes and recovered 1.6 Kg gold from them. One passenger namely Bhanga Jagdish was caught with 1.2 Kg gold which he had concealed in his rectum. He took the said smuggled gold from an international pax at Trivendrum Airport and came to Mumbai as a domestic pax in Indigo Flight No. 6E-176. The other passenger came to Mumbai from Dubai in Air India Express Flight No. IX-248 and was caught with 400 gms of gold. He had concealed the gold in crushed form mixed with some chemical and glued on his T-Shirt which he was wearing inside his Shirt to avoid detection by Customs. The smuggled gold and foreign currencies have been seized.

DeshGujarat

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