Gold In Pen Refills, Sweet Boxes And Paper Sheets: Mumbai Customs Bust Creative Smugglers

Of the six passengers, three came from Sharjah, two from Dubai and one from Jeddah.

Gold dust was recovered from the jeans pocket of one of the passengers while gold rods were found camouflaged in ball pen refills. The creative ways of smuggling golds almost hit a parallel with the Bollywood movie 'Crew' featuring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kriti Sanon and Tabu.

Meanwhile, rhodium plated gold strip and ring were concealed in two round shaped butter cookie boxes by sticking the gold strips around the border of the boxes.

The Mumbai Customs Zone-III of the Airport Commissionerate also found one of the passengers to be hiding gold jewellery on their body. Additionally, gold dust in paper was also concealed between two layers of brown paper sheets placed inside 21 boxes of chocolates, cookies, biscuits, crockery etc.

This seizure was during the period between July 1 and 9, among 22 other such cases of attempted smuggling, the Customs said.

In another similar incident, 13 Indians arriving separately from Dubai, Muscat and Sharjah were caught while trying to smuggle gold hidden in their inners, luggage and between layers of paper.

A foreign national from Sharjah as well was reportedly caught with an undeclared gold chain weighing 260 grams.

Last month, the Mumbai customs arrested nine passengers after they found gold hooks concealed inside a sweets box inside their language, gold chains hidden in undergarments and gold bars in handbags, NDTV reported.

The Mumbai Customs also found gold dust in wax recovered from a toilet situated near the transit area. Meanwhile officials found four gold bars weighing 467 kg, costing over Rs 29 lakh under a seat in an IndiGo aircraft in a pouch.

Notably, the frequent gold smuggling cases caught in passengers flying in from Gulf countries could also be possible given the relatively cheaper prices of gold there.