6 held for ‘smuggling’ gold worth Rs 16.5 cr

The SOG officials were acting on a tip off that three persons including the alleged mastermind Cliford Anthony D’costa of Mumbai were coming in a flight from Dubai.

In a major crackdown on a gold smuggling racket allegedly running in Ahmedabad, the Special Operation Group arrested six persons including a woman at the Ahmedabad International Airport on Tuesday and seized 60 kgs of gold worth Rs 16.50 crore. The accused are allegedly agents working for smugglers using Dubai port as base to sneak gold through Ahmedabad into the country.

The SOG officials were acting on a tip off that three persons including the alleged mastermind Cliford Anthony D’costa of Mumbai were coming in a flight from Dubai. The officials identified the other accused as Virendra Singh Sultan of Sultanpur in Haryana, Sapna Dipakbhai of Mumbai and Jayveer Singh and Jagdev Singh of Delhi who came to receive the consignment. The SOG also arrested the duo’s driver identified as Dinesh Harji Desai. When the bags of the accused were checked, they found, nine boxes containing 60 gold biscuits, cash of Rs 2,700, 2,500 Dirhams and US Dollar 71.

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Jt Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Crime Branch, A K Sharma said, “The accused have been running a gang to smuggle gold through middle east countries and get it to the country through Ahmedabad. They have brought gold five to six times like this in Ahmedabad. They are paid commission of Rs 50,000 per trip including their stay at a hotel and meals for the day.”

JCP Sharma said, “Their modus operandi is to hide the gold in bags of passengers who agree to work for them. The receivers in India are given the number of the agents in advance who wait at the airport to collect the consignment. The agents are given photographs of the receivers on their phone through WhatsApp and social networking sites.”