From labourer to airlines insider, the changing face of the gold smuggler

In Mumbai, there were at least four instances of airport-related employees being caught by Customs since February 11 – the first such catch this year – when a ground handling firm employee was nabbed for acting as a carrier for gold worth Rs 1.5 crore.

In popular imagination, fuelled by Bollywood movies of the 70s and 80s, the gold smuggler is a gaudily dressed, seedy looking man with oily hair and sideburns. In today’s reality though, this could well be the suave cabin steward serving you breakfast.

In 2014-15, Customs officials at airports across India detained at least 753 people carrying undeclared gold. These included traditional “mules” recruited from labourers in the Middle East, the source of most illegal gold imports, but officials also found in their net what they call “insiders”, or carriers working in the aviation industry.

“The latest flavour is insiders. Not just low-income or financially constrained employees, but well-educated, mid-level employees. This is our biggest nightmare,” said Kiran Karlapu, Assistant Commissioner, Mumbai Airport Customs.

In Mumbai, there were at least four instances of airport-related employees being caught by Customs since February 11 – the first such catch this year – when a ground handling firm employee was nabbed for acting as a carrier for gold worth Rs 1.5 crore.

Since then, a flight attendant was caught trying to smuggle gold and diamonds worth Rs 1.06 crore; two employees of a flight catering service was arrested as they were attempting a series of gold retrievals from four flights worth Rs 1.6 crore; and a senior executive from a ground handling firm was detained when he tried to trying to receive gold worth Rs 1.03 crore from a passenger.

The Indian Express found one such “insider” outside the Customs interrogation room at the Mumbai airport – a young man who said he was an employee of an Indian airline till he was caught carrying gold.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he claimed that he had been “framed” by his friends. “My friend’s father handed it (gold) to me in the flight saying that they were expensive pieces of glass. If I knew it was gold, I would have hidden it in my baggage and not in my pockets,” he said.

However, his claims appear to be weak, said a Customs official, adding that many crew members do not get frisked – neither do airline employees vetted by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

The recent series of gold seizures from airline crew in the past six months – with around 20 arrests in Mumbai alone – led to a stern letter from Customs to airlines, asking them to ensure their crew “do not deviate from the procedure of clearing Customs, irrespective of the fact that they may be on a domestic turn”.

Just last month, officials recovered two cut pieces of gold bars worth Rs 24.68 lakh from the toilet of a Dubai-Mumbai flight and another 1.8kg of gold in the form of 16 gold bars from under a seat of a Doha–Mumbai plane.

In February, an international flight departing to Muscat was detained by Mumbai Customs and 6kg gold worth Rs 1.49 crore was recovered from the toilets.

“Within just 20 seconds inside the aircraft’s toilets, we took out six bars of gold worth Rs 4.9 crore. The gold was found concealed behind the wash basin in the three toilets of the aircraft,” said A P S Suri, Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Airport.

While Emirates did not respond to repeated requests for comment, an Air India spokesperson said there “have been just one or two stray incidents of airline staff being involved in gold smuggling”.

”Most of our crew are aware that we do not tolerate any violations and have always instructed our staff that any violation will lead to disciplinary action,” the spokesperson added.

Of two other Indian airlines that operate on international routes, particularly to the Middle East, Indigo declined to comment while a Jet Airways spokesperson said it’s “mandatory for all Jet Airways employees to comply with the company’s rules and regulations and the prevalent customs, immigration and security laws”.

Insiders are not the only new trend, though. There is an increasing geographical diversity among the so-called “gold mules”. Earlier, officials say, over 75 per cent cases of smuggling involved individuals from the Kasargod and Kozhikode districts of Kerala, followed by Bhatkal in Karnataka. Now, they add, a number of people from southern Tamil Nadu, and Valsad and Navsari in Gujarat figure among the accused.

Some of these carriers even include minors. Recently, a 15-year-old girl with her mother were caught at Mumbai airport on suspicion of smuggling. Their tickets were booked on the same PNR as that of a “potential smuggler”, who turned out to be the minor’s father; he was walking some metres away.

“While five kg of gold were recovered from the mother, investigations revealed that the man used his three children alternatively to pick up, transfer and smuggle gold without being present in the vicinity of the crime. His only mistake this time was booking all the tickets on the same PNR,” said an official.

Source:: Indian Express