DRI busts gold smuggling racket, arrests eight

Eight people were arrested, of which three were Indians, four Kenyans and one Tanzanian. The overseas nationals are women. The premises searched where allegedly used for melting smuggled gold; the agency also searched the premises of a jeweller who purchased smuggled gold, said a source

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted an alleged gold smuggling racket in the city. It seized 2.1kg of gold allegedly smuggled into India; USD100,000, valued at ₹84.15 lakh, and ₹ 2.32 crore in cash suspected to be proceeds from the smuggled gold.

DRI busts gold smuggling racket, arrests eight

Eight people were arrested, of which three were Indians, four Kenyans and one Tanzanian. The overseas nationals are women. The premises searched where allegedly used for melting smuggled gold; the agency also searched the premises of a jeweller who purchased smuggled gold, said a source.

“The owner-cum-operator of the melting facility is a repeat offender and is wanted in other cases as well,” the official said. Investigation revealed, the smuggled gold by African nationals was aggregated by a few collectors who then handed over the stock to the owner-cum-operator of the smuggled gold melting facility in Mumbai.

“Keeping strict round-the-clock vigil, the African nationals were located and searches carried out at two hotels in South Mumbai from where they carried out transactions. It led to the recovery,” the official said.

Investigation revealed an alleged nexus between the African nationals and the owner of the melting facility – they then diverted the smuggled gold to jewellers and received cash in foreign and Indian currencies, according to the DRI.

“This is a very significant bust of smuggling syndicate involving African nationals as carriers. In April 2023 a similar syndicate, which used Sudanese nationals as carriers, was busted by the DRI,” the official said.