Two contractual staff at Delhi airport among 3 held for gold smuggling

The Delhi customs on Thursday said two APHO employees were caught helping an Indian passenger from Saudi Arabia smuggle the gold into the country.

Three persons, two of them contractual employees of the Airport Health Organisation (APHO), were apprehended at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for trying to smuggle in gold, estimated to worth around ₹76 lakh, customs officers said on Friday.

The gold bars were allegedly handed over to the employees in a washroom near the airport’s gate number 18. (Sourced)

Customs commissioner Zubair Riaz Kamili, confirmed the arrests and the Delhi customs said on Thursday, two APHO employees were caught helping an Indian passenger from Saudi Arabia smuggle the gold into the country. The two APHO employees have been posted at the airport for the last two years for screening passengers for Covid-19 and handling those who test positive. The gold bars were allegedly handed over to the employees in a washroom near gate number 18 and custom officers said the APHO employees were aware that the washroom did not have any CCTV cameras in its vicinity and hence chose the place for the handover.

A senior customs officer, who asked not to be named, said, “The APHO employees were misusing the pass they had for moving within the airport. A passenger (Indian national) had landed from Riyadh and handed over 14 gold bars, weighing a total of 1,632 grams, to one of the detained APHO employees. The employee said he had been instructed by his colleague to receive the consignment. For this, they were paid a commission.”

In another operation, a South African national who had landed in Delhi was caught with 10kg heroin on Friday. The customs said the passenger had stitched a false cover in the bottom of his luggage and hid the contraband inside it. “On the basis of profiling, the passenger was followed and stopped for checking. He had come to Delhi on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. While checking his baggage, we found the false bottom; the drug was wrapped in black adhesive tape to avoid detection. The passenger was apprehended and we are looking for his accomplices,” a custom officer said, asking not to be named.

Also on Friday, two women passengers from Uganda were arrested for smuggling around 1.85 kilos of cocaine, valued at ₹28 crore, according to a tweet put out by the Delhi Customs. The two women had swallowed the cocaine capsules to smuggle them into the country. The Delhi Customs said the two women are admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where they are recovering.