Four busts at IGI airport: Gold smuggling, now in fruit drink mixture

The seizure is one of four cases at IGI airport in the past month of gold granules being found inside such packets. “Gold granules mixed with fruit drink powder are hard to detect. Smugglers mix them in a way that it’s impossible to spot it with the naked eye. But customs officials segregate the two powders using sieves of different sizes, and detect it in an X-ray scanner,” a senior official said.

Customs officials told The Indian Express that Sahansha was detained soon after he landed. “He initially claimed he was a businessman and was travelling abroad to promote his business, but officials went on to frisk his belongings. The gold granules were detected in an X-ray scanner. He kept complaining they are wasting their time, but after a few minutes, gold granules started pouring out from an orange packet,” an official said.

Gold granules are mixed with the fruit drink powder. Officials used sieves and X-ray to separate them.

“Since February 10, four cases with the same modus operandi have been reported at the Delhi airport, and six arrests have been made. The ‘couriers’ were given free tickets and handed a packet of ‘orange-flavoured fruit drink mix’,” an officer said.

Officials said all of them were supposed to hand the packet to people waiting at the airport, who managed to escape.
In the three earlier busts, officials had recovered gold granules of 1,050 gms, 520 gms and 406 gms.  “We also suspect the involvement of insiders,” a senior officer supervising the investigation said. Customs officers said that the new modus operandi has emerged as the old tricks are being detected with ease at the airport, forcing smugglers to become more creative.