Foiled! Gold smuggler nabbed by customs officials at IGI airport

Wrapping sweets, chocolates, and wafers in aluminium foil may not seem suspicious, but for Delhi Customs officials, it certainly was. Customs officials recently nabbed a 50-year-old man who had beaten 1 kg of gold into foil and painted it silver to avoid detection.

Gold smuggling into the Capital is certainly on the rise. Officials say that the department has seized gold worth Rs 1.4 crore in four different incidents recently, for which they have arrested four passengers so far.

In the most recent case, officials said that following a tip-off, they intercepted a man who had landed at Delhi airport from Dubai two days ago. While screening his luggage, some objectionable items were spotted and he was requested to cooperate while his bag was getting frisked.

"During the frisking, boxes of wafers and confectionery items were recovered from his hand bag and eatables were found wrapped in a foil. Upon checking it was found that all of the foils were made of gold. In all, 996 grammes of gold was recovered from the passenger in the form of foil concealed inside the carton boxes. The concealment was such that it made it difficult even for the X-ray machines to detect the gold," said Govind Garg, Deputy Commissioner, Customs, IGI airport.

The passenger was arrested and the gold foils were seized.

Three other cases of smuggling were also recently foiled at the Delhi airport. In one case, officials said the passenger had concealed the gold inside a microwave oven and had placed it near the coil, which is used to heat food items, to avoid detection.