Mumbai: An IndiGo airline ground staff was arrested with 33 Gold Bars valued over Rs 2.13 crore by the customs air intelligence unit (AIU) on the intervening night of 11-12 December at Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
The 10 tolas 33 pieces of 24 KT gold weighing 3845.00 grams were seized from the IndiGo airlines ground staff under close surveillance for several days on intelligence developed by the Mumbai Customs of developed intel about the smuggling racket of Gold from the airport tarmac and inline area of the airport by the ground staff employed for handling the passenger baggage.
Staffer Held Over Suspicion
On the night of 11.12.2023, as a consequence of this surveillance, officers of Mumbai Airport Customs apprehended a ground staff working with IndiGo Airlines, based on his suspicious movement, in the inline area where baggage from IndiGo flight 6E 1454 coming from Dubai was being offloaded onto the baggage belt.
The ground staff, on being apprehended, started to threaten the officers and even attacked the officers physically and tried to escape. However, the officers secured the loader and thereafter personal search of the employee resulted in the recovery of 17 Gold Bars concealed between two mobile covers kept in the trousers worn by him.
Several Bags Checked, 16 More Gold Bars Found
Further, when the loader was asked about his bag pack which the loaders usually keep in a locker, he misled the officers to the wrong bag kept at commonplace used by other staff. When officers checked the bag described by him nothing objectionable was found. Not satisfied officers decided to check from huge number of bags kept there to see if there was anything unusual. While checking one bag, on lifting one bag was found very heavy, from which a further recovery of 16 more Gold Bars was made.
When confronted, he admitted that this was actually his bag from which recovery was made and he deliberately misled the officers to the wrong bag to avoid detection of gold concealed in the bag. Thus, a total of 33 Gold Bars valued over 2.13 crore were recovered from the IndiGo Airlines employee. The employee was arrested and further investigations are on.
