Bhopal emerging epicenter of smugglers, agencies alert

Bhopal emerging epicenter of smugglers, agencies alert

Don of smugglers devised way to use people of smaller city to make illusion to enforcing agencies.

MANISH UPADHYAYUpdated: Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 10:59 PM IST
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Indore: State capital Bhopal is emerging as the new hub of carriers of smuggled gold in the country. The arrest of three smugglers, including one at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International airport on Sunday, within a short span has alerted security and law enforcing agencies tasked with tackling smuggling.

So far, Mumbai’s suburb Ulhas Nagar was notorious for being the hotbed of carriers of gold smuggled into the country. As various agencies concentrated on Ulhas Nagar, smugglers settled in Dubai and Abu Dhabi turned their attention towards small-time and least known cities for carriers.

A senior officer of a prominent Central agency tasked with checking smuggling, on condition of anonymity, informed Free Press about the new trend.

“Traditionally, gold was smuggled through Mumbai airport. The smugglers hired people from Ulhas Nagar as carriers. The carriers used to smuggle gold into the country at Mumbai and handed it over to Indian receiver,” he said.

After flight to Dubai was launched from Indore or other tier-two cities, these centres became new carrier supply centres for smugglers sitting in Dubai.

The officer said that ‘the dons in Dubai’ shifted focus to these small cities to escape central agencies. They not only hired carriers from these tier-two cities but also started sending gold in semi-solid state to evade metal detector.

He said that the shift in focus of smugglers to smaller cities was attributed to the fact that people holding passport from Ulhas Nagar, Mumbai constantly remained on the radar of Customs and DRI.

A person hailing from Bhopal or any other tier-two city does not arouse suspicion of customs and DRI sleuths at immigration counter.

The officer further said that within a short span three persons of Bhopal were nabbed for gold smuggling. Air Intelligence Unit of customs department arrested Saiyad Ali at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport. He is a resident of Shahajahanabad area of Bhopal. He arrived from Dubai hiding 500 kg of semi-solid gold in his rectum on Sunday night and ended up in DRI net.

The officer refused to divulge names of two other smugglers for security reasons and added that a few residents of Bhopal who obtained passport from Regional Passport Office Bhopal, are on the radar of central agencies.

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