Mumbai, India – On Thursday night, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) detained a remarkable 149 passengers out of 156 onboard a flight traveling from Oman to Chennai for their involvement in a significant smuggling operation within Tamil Nadu’s capital.
This interception resulted in the confiscation of a total of 13 kilograms of gold, over 2,500 smartphones, and saffron, with an estimated combined worth of ₹14 crore. The apprehended passengers were attempting to evade high customs duties on these smuggled items.
Heightened surveillance and vigilance at Mumbai and Delhi airports have compelled criminal syndicates to shift their smuggling routes from the Middle East to southern Indian airports in Chennai, Cochin, and Hyderabad, thereby leading to an increase in seizures and arrests over the past three months.
This evolving trend involves labor immigrants from the Gulf region being utilized as conduits to smuggle gold and other contraband through southern airports, a response to the crackdown on gold smuggling operations in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, and Delhi.
“A new trend has emerged of labor immigrants from the Gulf being used as mules to smuggle gold and other contraband from southern airports after the crackdown on the gold smuggling rackets at Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, and Delhi. The last three months have seen a phenomenal rise in gold seizures from Tamil Nadu airports and sea routes,” explained a senior customs and revenue official.
In their continuous efforts to combat gold smuggling, DRI Chennai has seized approximately 163 kilograms of gold valued at ₹97 crore across 29 cases. Furthermore, 43 individuals have been arrested since January 2023 in various parts of Tamil Nadu.
In a prior incident in May, DRI officials intercepted two passengers and seized 23.34 kilograms of gold worth ₹14.43 crore at Chennai International Airport.
In another case, a DRI team confiscated 20.5 kilograms of gold valued at ₹12 crore in July, smuggled from Sri Lanka via the sea route of Thangachimadam, the northern coast of Ramnad, aboard a fishing boat.
Yet another consignment of 5.17 kilograms of gold worth ₹3.17 crore was seized from an aircraft that had just arrived from Sharjah at Coimbatore International Airport. Additionally, 6.275 kilograms of gold worth ₹3.8 crore were seized from another flight at Chennai Airport on the same night.
