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.)