Man, woman held at Delhi airport for smuggling gold worth ₹70 lakh

A man and a woman have been arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport by the customs in two separate cases, after they were found trying to smuggle in gold from Paris and Dubai, respectively

A man and a woman have been arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport by the customs in two separate cases, after they were found trying to smuggle in gold from Paris and Dubai, respectively. While the woman was arrested after a packet bearing a ”brown powder” was detected in her undergarments, which was later found to be gold in powder form, the man had concealed 84 gold items, including coins, pendants and rings, in his luggage and was trying to get it through the green channel undetected, officials said.

Man, woman held at Delhi airport for smuggling gold worth ₹70 lakh

In the first case, the woman passenger arrived from Dubai via a SpiceJet flight on Tuesday and was taken in for checking on a suspicion that she was carrying a contraband. Upon checking, a brown powdered substance was detected in her undergarments, which was later tested.

“The powder weighing 1,070 grams was recovered. From that, gold weighing 883 grams was retrieved, with a market value of ₹39.53 lakh,” said a customs official, adding that the gold was smuggled in a powdered form to make it difficult to detect. “It was discovered while scanning the passenger and the packet appeared suspicious,” the official said.

In the second case, a man who arrived from Paris was taken in for checking the same day, after something suspicious was detected in his baggage during an X-ray inspection. Customs says upon inspection, 77 gold coins, three gold bracelets, one gold ring and two gold pendants, weighing a total of 761 grams, were recovered.