Fast-food joint staff arrested for ferrying smuggled gold out of CSMIA

AIU arrests restaurant employee for smuggling gold from Mumbai Airport for a commission, part of larger smuggling racket

MUMBAI: A 38-year-old employee of a fast-food restaurant has been arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Mumbai Customs for allegedly helping in taking out smuggled gold from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) and handing it over to the members of the smuggling racket -- outside for a commission.

Gold hidden in capsules, condom, rectum: Bizarre airport seizures. (ANI)

Acting on a specific tip-off, AIU officers at CSMIA on Friday apprehended Ariyanayagam Pandian, a Dharavi resident while he was trying to exit from the west post of Central Industrial Security Force. He was frisked by the AIU officials and it was found that he was hiding 6 oval capsules containing gold hidden in his belt and the backside of the belt containing 3,479 grams of gold dust in wax, valued around ₹1.86 crore.

“His role was to receive gold at the departure area and hand it over to the members of the racket outside. He was supposed to hand over the consignment at Bandra T junction to Noorul Hasan J and Kalandar Azzarudeen,” said the officials.

The officials asked Pandian to call Noorul and come to the airport to pick up the consignment and arrested the two recipients of the consignment after a chase.

Noorul and Kalandar stayed at Hotel Star in Masjid Bunder and they told the officials that they worked for Anthony from Mohammad Ali Road. They received ₹3 lakh per delivery out of which ₹1.8 lakh were paid to Pandian, who worked in a fast-food joint near the international departure area.

“The authorities said the investigation is at a preliminary stage and the modus operandi shows a bigger nexus of gold smuggling which is required to be investigated,” said the official. The authorities said they had booked the accused under section 135 of the Customs Act, 1962 for duty evasion.