Masterminds of gold smuggling racket arrested

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has arrested a father-son duo who were allegedly involved in a gold smuggling racket with Sudanese nationals. The accused are from Kerala and run a jewellery shop in Dubai. The agency had arrested 18 Sudanese nationals on April 24 for smuggling 16 kgs of gold worth ?10 crore, and the number of arrested accused has now reached 25. The DRI seized ?88 lakh cash from the jewellery shop of one of the accused.

Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Sunday arrested a father-son duo, alleged masterminds of a gold smuggling racket involving Sudanese nationals.

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The arrested accused have been identified as Mohammad Ali and his son Shabeeb Ali. Shabeeb was on his way from Mumbai to Dubai when he was arrested from the Mumbai International airport premises, while his father was arrested near the airport area after questioning him, a DRI official said.

The agency claimed that both are native of Kerala and run a jewellery shop in Dubai. They have been involved in the gold smuggling racket for several years, the agency said.

As many as 18 Sudanese nationals were arrested on April 24 for smuggling 16 kgs of gold worth ₹10 crore. The number of arrested accused has now touched 25.

According to the DRI official, several suspects were caught on April 24 after they landed in Mumbai from different flights emanating from the United Arab Emirates.

During the check, the 18 Sudanese nationals were found carrying gold in paste form, gold-cut pieces and jewellery. Most of the gold was concealed in the body of the arrested passengers making it difficult to detect. They were operating with one Indian national Suhail Poonawala who is the key person coordinating their movement. He was also arrested on April 25, a DRI official said.

During investigation, the agency arrested four more suspects identified as Yunus Shaikh, Govind Rajput, Mohammed Alam and Mohammed Osman. Rajput owns a jewellery shop in Zaveri Bazar and lives in South Mumbai. Shaikh is also a resident of Mumbai while Alam lives in Navi Mumbai and Osman is a Sudanese national.

After questioning the accused, the agency learnt that Poonawala collected smuggled gold from the foreigners and gave it to Shaikh. Shaikh then melted the gold and handed it over to Rajput, who sold it in the gold market. The agency raided Rajput’s jewellery shop in Zaveri Bazar and seized cash ₹88 lakh, the DRI official added.