Hyderabad: An organized gold smuggling mafia are targeting jobless people both men and women from the city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other gulf countries to smuggle gold into India.
Customs officials while probing deep into an international drug smuggling racket having pan India angle found that jobless people are lured into carrying the gold to Indian cities and offered small sums of money and air tickets in exchange.
“Agents are hunting for people who have several attempts to get a job and are desperate to return to India. Because of no job they aren’t left with money to buy air tickets. The agents connect such persons to gold smuggling syndicates and pump the gold in different forms through them,” said an official of Hyderabad customs.
For a trip, they are paid between Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 30,000 and if caught the amount is reduced to half. The legalities involved if arrested are taken care of by the local lawyers of the gold syndicates, police official said. They added that several agents work for paltry sums in Gulf countries and identify the people who are ready to smuggle gold out of desperation to return to India.
“The gold carriers as they are called are from economically backward families and buying an air ticket and meeting other expenses is a challenge for them. Both men and women readily agree to be involved in the smuggling,” said an official of Hyderabad police.
On Tuesday, the Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force (south) team led by inspector S Raghavendra caught four persons who were carrying 1 kg of gold smuggled from the UAE.
Mohammed Khaja Mohiuddin (38) of Golconda in Hyderabad concealed the gold capsules in his rectum and smuggled them into the country. After reaching a lodge in the city he was staying there and waited to eject it in the wash room.
Rayees Ahmed Sayeed Hussain, 48, Sarim Hussain, 29 and Fouzan, 38 of Karnataka had come to the city to take gold to Mumbai gold market and hand it over to the persons linked to the mafia.
“Rayeez is very important in the syndicate in India. He visits all the cities where the gold is smuggled into by the carriers and collects it,” said a customs official adding there is a big chain involved in Gulf countries and India.
According to the police, Khaja Mohiuddin went to UAE on a visit visa and ran out of money. One person, Mustakin met him there and offered money and a flight ticket in exchange for smuggling gold into the country.
“Khaja swallowed the three gold capsules after Mustakin handed it over to him there. After landing at the RGI Airport he met Rayeez and his associates who took him to a lodge in Afzalgunj and accommodated him there. He ejected it in the washroom and handed it over to Rayeez,” said the police official.
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