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21kg gold bust: Chinese national held at airport
New Delhi: A Chinese national, believed to be the mastermind of a notorious gold smuggling syndicate that smuggles in the precious metal from Taiwan and Hong Kong
New Delhi: A Chinese national, believed to be the mastermind of a notorious gold smuggling syndicate that smuggles in the precious metal from Taiwan and Hong Kong and sells it to local jewellers in Delhi, has been arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) from Delhi airport.
The arrest was made while he was allegedly trying to flee the country. DRI officials said the man was arrested following a probe into the recovery over 21kg gold worth ₹7 crore from a house in Moti Nagar last month. A Taiwan national and an Indian were earlier arrested following the recovery last month.
According to the DRI officials, on Monday, their team at the Indira Gandhi International Airport intercepted a 35-year-old Chinese man who was leaving for Hong Kong. Officials said the man was arrested over suspicion of masterminding the smuggling of huge consignments of gold into India from China.
“On October 21, a DRI team raided a house in a residential colony in Moti Nagar. A 45-year-old Indian was spotted leaving the house with a bag. He was stopped and a search of his bag led to the recovery of 14kg gold. Further, the house was searched and 7.9kg more gold was recovered. The recovered gold was in granular form, coated with carbon powder. It was concealed within RO filters,” the officer, not wanting to be named, said.
The Indian who used to work at a local shop was then arrested. “During interrogation, he revealed the involvement of a Taiwanese man, whose role was to extract the gold from its concealment and further transport it. On his instance, the Taiwanese, a 34-year-old man, was also arrested from Delhi,” the officer said.
During further interrogation of the two men, they revealed the involvement of two separate China-based and Taiwan-based syndicates that smuggled of gold into India by concealing it in utensils, ROs and other household goods.
“They said the gold recovered on October 21 was smuggled in by the Taiwan-based syndicate. In order to evade detection, the gold was concealed in the sediment filters of RO water purifiers and were couriered from Taiwan to New Delhi where it was collected by the other members of the gang. They said in the past, the gold was extracted from the sediment filter using the remelting process and was sold to Karol Bagh-based jewellers for cash,” the officer said, adding that in this case, the gang was yet to extract the gold and sell it to jewellers.
The role of these jewellers is being looked into, the officer said.
The involvement of the three men in other cases is also being verified. Last November, DRI had recovered 21kg of gold being smuggled in from China by concealing it in bag zippers and ashtrays and arrested seven men, including four Chinese nationals. Names of the three men have not been revealed as the cases are still under investigations, he said.
