Mumbai Airport Customs Bust Gold Smuggling Racket; Filipino Woman, Airport Loader Arrested

The Mumbai Airport Customs officials have busted an international gold smuggling racket and have arrested two persons, including a Phillipino woman and a contractual loader working at the CSMI airport. The gold was being smuggled in socks that were handed over to the loader by the transit passenger, officials said.

Gold Recovered During CISF Surveillance

Those arrested have been identified as R.A. Balagot (40), Philippines national who works in a bus service company in Dubai and E.A. Pathan (43), who works as a contractual loader at the airport.

According to the Customs sources, CISF's crime & intelligence wing team, through keen behaviour detection, intercepted a loader while receiving a suspicious item concealed in socks from an international transit female passenger at the smoking zone near the international boarding gate.

1.311 Kg Gold Worth ₹1.61 Crore Seized

The passenger had arrived from Dubai and was scheduled to travel onward to Bangkok. When questioned, the loader failed to provide a satisfactory explanation, prompting a thorough search by CISF personnel. The search led to the recovery of four oval-shaped capsules containing approximately 1,311 grams of suspected smuggled gold from his possession, valued at Rs 1.61 crore.

The passenger, staff and recovered suspected smuggled gold were handed over to the Air Intelligence Unit of Customs for further investigation and necessary legal action. Voluntary statement of the accused Balagot was recorded wherein the accused admitted the possession, carriage, recovery and smuggling and handling of gold.

Accused Allegedly Admitted Their Roles

The passenger admitted that the gold dust did not belong to her and she carried the same on the behest of someone, and staff Pathan admitted in his voluntary statement that he was receiving the gold from the passenger for monetary consideration.

This modus operandi is likely to be exploited by the smugglers in a big way even to smuggle other contraband items which might be detrimental to national security. This modus operandi is required to be nipped in the bud also to avoid huge financial loss to the exchequer, officials said. The investigation in this case is at the preliminary stage and the nexus is yet to be revealed by the accused, officials said.

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