NEW DELHI, Apr 27: Nine Kenya women have been arrested for attempting to smuggle in gold worth over Rs nine crores at the Mumbai airport. Official sources said the scene the accused women tried to create at the airport looked like a scene leapt out of a film. They attempted to smuggle gold worth over ₹ 9 crore into Mumbai airport on Thursday by creating a ruckus to distract authorities but the authorities saw through the game.
The plan was to sneak 18.28 kg of gold past Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport authorities by setting up a chaotic diversion in the busy airport. However, the Air Intelligence Unit saw through the plan and arrested the women. Further investigation is ongoing, the airport authorities said.
On Wednesday, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a gold smuggling racket and arrested 18 Sudanese women as well as an Indian woman with 16.36 kg of the yellow metal in paste form at the same airport. The 18 women from Sudan were carrying the smuggled gold and the Indian woman was coordinating the movement of the passengers, an official said.
Earlier this year, gold worth ₹ 4 crore was found in the undergarments of two passengers at Mumbai airport. “Most of the recovered gold was concealed in the undergarments of the passengers making it extremely difficult to detect. This is a unique modus operandi busted by the DRI,” an official said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
