Surat:

Four people have been arrested for allegedly smuggling gold worth Rs 65 lakh by spraying it on trolley bags to evade security checks at the international airport in Gujarat’s Surat, police said on Monday.

The accused allegedly smuggled gold from Dubai by mixing it with chemicals and spraying it on rexine and rubber sheets of trolley bags, the official said.

According to an official statement, the Special Operations Group (SOG) arrested four persons who were part of a gang and seized 927 gm of gold worth around Rs 65 lakh on Sunday.

The gang members sent a couple from Surat to Dubai, where their accomplice handed them gold in liquid form.

The gold was mixed with chemicals and sprayed on trolley bags to evade security checks at the Surat International Airport, the SOG said.

The accused managed to evade immigration checks and were going to deliver the smuggled gold to their gang members at a hotel, it said.

“Based on a tip-off, the SOG team conducted a raid at a hotel and arrested four persons, including a woman,” the statement said.

The accused, Naeem Saleh (29), Umaima Saleh (25), Abdul Bemat (33), and Firoz Nur (48), are residents of Mangrol in Surat district, it said.

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Over the previous decade, UAE accepted over 2,500 tonne of smuggled gold. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gold smuggling out of Africa, mainly to the United Arab Emirates, has surged over the last decade, with hundreds of tonnes of gold worth tens of billions of dollars illegally leaving the continent every year, according to a report published on May 30

Analysis by Swissaid, an organisation that focuses on development aid and advocacy, found that a total of 435 tonnes of gold, mostly mined by small-scale miners and worth more than $30 billion, was smuggled out of Africa in 2022. Swissaid said the UAE was the main destination for Africa’s smuggled gold and took in 405 tonnes in 2022. Over the previous decade, UAE accepted more than 2,500 tonnes of smuggled gold with a total value of over $115 billion, it said.

Asked to comment on the findings, a UAE official said the country had taken significant steps to address concerns about gold smuggling and implemented new regulations on gold and other precious metals.

The scale of the flow underscores how small scale, or artisanal, mining has mushroomed into an industry involving millions of people producing volumes of gold on a par with or even bigger than industrial mining.

In 2019, a Reuters investigation found that billions of dollars’ worth of gold was being smuggled out of Africa every year through the UAE, which served a gateway to markets in Europe, the U.S. and beyond.

Aside from the loss in tax revenues, experts and governments have warned that smuggling on this scale indicates a vast parallel illicit economy vulnerable to potential money laundering, terrorist finance and sanctions evasion.

Marc Ummel, commodities lead at Swissaid and one of the authors of the report, said the UAE contributes to gold laundering because large quantities of smuggled gold acquire a legal existence by transiting through the UAE.

Discrepancies

For its analysis, Swissaid compared total gold exports from all African countries with gold imports into non-African countries. The organisation filled gaps in UN Comtrade data with individual country statistics and identified errors by comparing the data with figures reported by trade associations and speaking with governments and refineries.

These discrepancies between declared exports and declared imports do not exist for Switzerland and India, the other two major gold importing countries for African gold.

The Swissaid report found that there were 12 countries in Africa involved in smuggling 20 tonnes or more per year.

In response to accusations that it was not doing enough to enforce regulations on the sector, a UAE Ministry of Economy spokesperson said the UAE cannot be held accountable for other government’s export records. “Only our own, where we have sophisticated technologies and systems to track and verify the data.”

With the gold price having doubled since 2009, the number of people turning to artisanal mining has surged. Swissaid estimates that artisanal and small-scale gold mining in African countries produced between 443 and 596 tonnes of gold in 2022. Of this, more than 70% is not declared. By comparison, industrial miners have produced around 500 tonnes of gold a year.

The report found that the majority of African gold imported into the UAE each year comes from informal artisanal and small-scale mining. These methods provide a livelihood to millions of Africans but often come at a high cost to local communities and the environment.

“There’s a certain hypocrisy with some of the Swiss refineries,” said Mr. Ummel. “They don’t want to source African artisanal gold directly but at the same time import very high quantities of gold from the UAE, which is the main hub for African artisanal gold.”

Kannur, Kerala:

An air hostess was arrested for allegedly smuggling nearly one kilogram of gold from Muscat to Kannur by concealing it in her rectum, a DRI source said today.

Based on specific intelligence by DRI Cochin, officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI – Kannur) intercepted the cabin crew member named Surabhi Khatun, a native of Kolkata, who arrived from Muscat at Kannur International Airport on May 28.

Her personal search resulted in the recovery of 960 grams of smuggled gold in compound form concealed in her rectum, the source told news agency Press Trust of India.

After interrogation and completing the necessary formalities, she was produced before the jurisdictional magistrate and remanded to 14 days to women’s prison in Kannur, the source told news agency PTI.

This is the first case in India where an airline crew member has been apprehended for smuggling gold by concealing it in the rectum, the source claimed.

A detailed investigation has started and the evidence gathered so far suggests she had previously smuggled gold several times. The involvement of Kerala-based individuals in the smuggling gang is also being investigated, the source told Press Trust of India.

A representative of the airline was contacted seeking its view on the issue, but is yet to respond.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu:

Officers of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at Tiruchirappalli airport in Tamil Nadu seized a total of 977 grams of 24 carat gold valued at Rs 70.58 lakh from a passenger arriving from Dubai.

According to the officials, the gold was concealed in the three packets consisting of 1081 grams of paste like material in the rectum of the passenger.

The passenger was travelling from Dubai to Trichy on the Air India Express. The passenger has been arrested and further investigation is underway.

Earlier, this March, the Air Intelligence Unit officials at Tiruchirappalli airport seized 410 grams of gold valued at Rs. 26.62 lakh from a passenger arriving from Singapore.

According to the officials, the seized gold consisted of 330 grams of 24 carat gold extracted from paste-like material and 80 grams of 22 carat gold concealed inside the vest of a passenger travelling from Singapore to Trichy.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The World Gold Council expects India’s gold demand to rise in 2024 despite higher prices. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

MUMBAI

India’s gold demand is expected to be subdued in the first quarter of 2024 due to lower jewellery sales, but annual demand is anticipated to rise as consumers adjust to higher prices, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on January 31.

Higher purchases in the world’s second-biggest gold consumer could support prices which are trading near record highs. However, the rising demand for imports could widen India’s trade deficit and put pressure on the rupee.

India’s gold demand has been stuck between 700 and 800 metric tons in the past five years, but it is expected to break out of this range and rise to between 800 and 900 tons in 2024, Somasundaram P.R., CEO of WGC’s Indian operations told Reuters. “Given the fact that high prices have now been absorbed and economic growth is robust, demand is resetting its base to 800 to 900 tons,” he said.

Indian gold demand fell 3% in 2023 from the prior year to 747.5 tons, the lowest since 2020, as prices rallying to a record high curtailed jewellery demand, the WGC said in a report published on Jan. 31. Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Peru, and Ghana are leading gold suppliers to India.

In the March quarter, demand is expected to stay low due to fewer auspicious wedding days, the WGC said. Weddings are a major driver of gold purchases in India, with the yellow metal in the form of jewellery being a crucial part of a bride’s attire and a popular gift from family and guests.

Indian gold consumption in the October-December quarter fell 4% to 266.2 tons, as a drop in jewellery demand overshadowed higher sales of coins and bars for investment purposes, the WGC said. Meanwhile, gold smuggling into India gained momentum to approximately around 130 tons from around 110 tons a year ago, Mr. Somasundaram said, due to prices reaching record highs.

The Commerce Ministry has backed a long-standing demand from the jewellery industry to reduce import tariffs on gold bars, Government and industry officials said, amid concern the duties were further harming the India’s faltering jewellery exports.

Mumbai:

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized gold worth Rs 19 crore from three locations in a pan-India operation and arrested 11 persons who were part of a smuggling syndicate, an official said on Sunday. The syndicate smuggled gold into India through the Bangladesh border and diverted it to Mumbai, Nagpur (in Maharashtra), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), etc, according to the DRI.

The DRI busted the syndicate involved in the smuggling of foreign-origin gold by road and on trains after conducting a well-coordinated operation in Varanasi, Nagpur and Mumbai on Friday and Saturday, as per an official release.

The Nagpur team of DRI apprehended two gold carriers at the Nagpur railway station on Friday evening when they alighted from an express train that started from Kolkata.

The team recovered 8.5 kg of foreign-marked gold from the duo. Following their interrogation, two receivers of the smuggled gold were also identified and apprehended, the release said.

The agency’s team in Varanasi arrested two other accused with the help of local police after a three-hour car chase and a search operation in a forest.

It recovered 18.2 kg of gold from the two persons. The yellow metal was concealed in a cavity made below the handbrake of the car, the release said.

The Mumbai team managed to apprehend five accused on the city streets after they had travelled from Varanasi by train, carrying 4.9 kg gold, it stated.

Eleven persons were arrested in the operation, of whom five were apprehended in Mumbai, two in Varanasi and four in Nagpur, the release said.

The accused were carriers, passengers, handlers, and final recipients of the smuggled gold, it added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Sales proceeds from smuggled gold worth Rs 3.62 crore as well as Rs 2.95 crore cash and 2.1 kilograms of gold were seized following a raid by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on a gold melting facility and a jewellery shop, an official said on Thursday. A DRI release said eight persons were arrested in this connection, including five women comprising four Kenyans and a Tanzanian who were used as carriers of the smuggled gold.

“Acting on specific intelligence, the DRI clandestinely searched the premises being used for melting smuggled gold followed by search at the premises of a jeweller who was the purchaser of the smuggled gold,” the release informed.

“During the searches, 2.1 of gold that was smuggled into India, USD 1 lakh amounting to Rs 84.15 lakh in Indian money, as well as Rs 2.32 crore cash, all of which are sale proceeds from smuggled gold, were seized from the melting facility and the jewellery shop in Mumbai,” the statement added.

The owner-cum-operator of the melting facility is a repeat offender who is wanted in other cases as well, it said.

A strict vigil by the DRI led to searches in two hotels from where the accused hailing from Africa ran their business, the release said.

“It resulted in the recovery of foreign currency of USD 3,31,600 valued at Rs.2,78,70,980, and Rs 63,07,500 cash. These are sale proceeds from smuggled gold. The probe found a nexus between the five African women and the owner cum operator of the melting facility to divert smuggled gold and receive cash in foreign and Indian currency,” it said.

The gold was collected by aggregators from various carriers, mostly Kenyan and Tanzanians, which was then passed on for melting and further sale to jewellers for cash, the statement said.

“The money so collected by the melter was paid back to the aggregators, who used to divide the money among the various carriers. This is a very significant bust of smuggling syndicates involving African nationals as carriers,” the statement said.

In April this year, another such syndicate, which used Sudanese nationals as carriers, was busted by the DRI. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)