Japanese held at IGIA with 7kg gold

In the first case, customs officers said the man, who owns an auto workshop in Japan, had concealed the gold inside auto parts.

The customs department at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Monday arrested a Japanese national for allegedly smuggling 7kg gold worth ₹2.22 crore.

Customs officers said the Japanese man was intercepted on his arrival from Hong Kong, acting on a tip-off. The man was told to cooperate with a detailed frisking and baggage check. (HTphotos)

In another case, customs arrested three Indians Sunday and recovered foreign currency to the value of ₹2.3 crore, which they were allegedly trying to smuggle to Bangkok.

In the first case, customs officers said the man, who owns an auto workshop in Japan, had concealed the gold inside auto parts.

Customs officers said the Japanese man was intercepted on his arrival from Hong Kong, acting on a tip-off. The man was told to cooperate with a detailed frisking and baggage check.

“When we checked his backpack, auto parts such as brake plates and piston parts were recovered. When the auto parts were put through the X-ray machine, we spotted gold concealed inside. The parts were then dismantled — it took us more than an hour — and eight gold bars were recovered,” a senior customs officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

The officer said the Japanese national had wireless earphones plugged in and they were connected to his smart watch. “It seems that he was taking directions from someone. Conversations are in Japanese and we are getting them translated. During questioning, he told us that he was asked to exit the airport’s arrival terminal from a particular gate based on which the receiver for the gold would have identified him and approached him,” the officer said.

Amandeep Singh, additional commissioner (customs), IGIA, said the recovered gold weighed 7kg and its market value is ₹2.22 crore. “The man was arrested and the gold seized,” he said.

On Monday night, officials also arrested an Indian with 340 gram of gold concealed in dates.

In the second case, officers intercepted three Indian men who had arrived at the airport to board a flight to Bangkok and recovered from them euros, dollars, riyals, dirhams, yen, pounds and dinar worth ₹2.3 crore.

“The currency was concealed in suitcases and bags. The trio claimed to be carriers. While one of them is an electrician by profession, another works at a restaurant in Bangkok. The third man said he owns an apparel store in Hoshiyarpur, Punjab. Their names cannot be revealed as our investigation is still on,” the officer said.

Manish Kumar, commissioner, customs, said between Saturday and Sunday, his teams recovered at least 10kg
gold worth over ₹5.5 crore from different passengers at the Delhi airport.