Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, May 17: Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) confiscated 2.25 kg of gold worth Rs 75 lac from a passenger who arrived into the city on an Air Asia flight from Bangkok at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in the city.

Arif Hussain (55), a resident of Adugodi in the city is the person who is arrested in this connection. It might be recalled that in the recent past many were caught carrying gold in the form of gel. It has come to light during the investigation that the kingpin of this racket is still not traced.

It is believed that this gang, to which the arrested Arif belongs, is active in the city since June 2018 and must have smuggled hundreds of kilograms of gold into the city by dubious means.

According to the top officials of DRI, the kingpin of this operation is identified as Shihabuddeen, a resident of Kerala, who owns many business venture in India as well as Dubai. He is known to be living abroad and is avoiding the dragnet of the Indian police.

So far 16 people are taken into custody by the DRI officials. Only three out of the 16 are known to be involved in the smuggling activities regularly and were also held under the COFEPOSA Act of 1974.

This gang was believe to be very active from the past five months owning to the connection they had in the customs department. The said custom officers are under suspension now because of which the DRI could catch a member of the said gang.

The main lead, which the DRI got of the gang was the arrest of a person called N T Jamsheer, who owned a grocery shop, on October 13, 2018. Due to the arrest of Jamsheer DRI could confiscate 22 kilograms of gold in paste form which is equivalent of 11 kgs of solid gold from six passengers.

One female passenger was found to carry as much as 6.6 kgs of gold paste. According to the DRI sleuths these human couriers are given this job in exchange to a paltry amount as the reward for carrying the same.