Smugglers held with gold worth Rs 1.3 crore concealed in their rectums TNN | Aug 21, 2013.
PANAJI: In the largest seizure of smuggled gold that Goa has seen, two Sri Lankan nationals and an Indian from Kerala were held at Dabolim International airport by customs officers on Tuesday, for smuggling 4.5 kg of the precious metal concealed in their rectums. The haul, valued at over 1.3 crore, was being smuggled into the country from the Middle-East. The three unidentified men were traveling on an Air India flight from Dubai, via Mumbai to Goa. "We are yet to establish the link between the three, but we suspect that they had received the smuggled gold on board the flight, and had concealed it in their rectums just before landing," customs commissioner V PC Rao said. With the price of gold crossing the Rs 31,000 mark (per ten grams) in India, cases of gold smuggling are becoming increasingly common, Rao said. In the past few months alone, the department has intercepted six passengers arriving in Goa from various Gulf countries, carrying small amounts of gold into the country. "As gold is not in high demand in Goa, we suspect that the couriers are sent here to divert the authorities' attention. The men who carry the yellow metal are merely laborers or couriers who are given instructions to deliver the 'goods' to people in Mumbai, Chennai or Kerala," Rao said. This is the first time officials have caught three carriers on the same flight, he added. In the earlier cases, the couriers had concealed gold bars in their luggage, inside their footwear or inside electronic equipment. "One man had wrapped the gold in carbon paper and hidden it inside his music system. Our officials keep an eye out for suspicious behavior and have the observational power to read people," he said. In Tuesday's case, the gold was found wrapped in condoms and stuffed up the rectums of two men. The man from Kerala had taped over 600 grams of gold to his inner thigh. Customs officers intercepted them because their 'walking style', no doubt altered due to their uncomfortable cargo, raised suspicions. The Keralite revealed that he had to deliver the gold to a contact in Kasargod in the Kerala-Karnataka border. The Sri Lankan citizens have not disclosed anything, and all three have been remanded to judicial custody.
