DRI Hyderabad busts gold smuggling racket, seizes Rs 2.5 crore worth of gold at Choutuppal
Choutuppal: The sleuths of Directorate of Revenue intelligence(DRI) Hyderabad Zonal Unit(HZU) busted a foreign origin gold smuggling racket and seized Rs 2.5 crore worths of gold bars from three suspects at Panthangi Toll Plaza, Choutuppal, on Wednesday. The suspects were smudging the gold by concealing it in a special cavity made below the handbrake of a car.
Going further into the details, acting on specific intelligence regarding movement of smuggled foreign origin gold from from Chennai by car, the officers of DRI, HZU intercepted three persons at Panthangi Toll Plaza, Choutuppal, Telangana who were travelling in a Maruti Suzuki Swift Car from Chennai to Bidar(Karnataka).
When questioned they revealed that they were carrying foreign origin smuggled gold by concealing it in a specially made cavity below the handbrake. “Then one of them opened the secret cavity by pulling a latch beside the clutch and three packets wrapped in brown tape containing a total of five 24 karat gold bars/cut pieces of 99.5% purity, weighing 3577 grams, valued at Rs 2.5 crores. Subsequently the gold bars were seized, ” said the apex anti-smuggling agency of India in an official statement.
Subsequently DRI officials seized foreign origin gold along with the vehicle and the passengers were arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 and remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation to identify the network is in progress.
“Gold smuggling has ceased to be a purely economic offence with the commodity being used in multiple illicit activities. Smuggling of gold not only impacts the indirect tax collections, but also adversely impacts the direct tax collections and feeds the parallel economy of the country. Being a high-value low-volume item, it is used as an excellent currency for money laundering as well” said DRi IN its smuggling in India report 2022-23.
“Use of domestic courier agencies to carry smuggled gold has also been unearthed by DRI during recent times. Concealment in various articles is also practiced profusely so as to hoodwink the law enforcement agencies” said DRI in its report.
