DRI busts mega rackets in arms, wildlife products and gold
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, MAY 15, 2017: IN two mega cases the Delhi DRI has busted two major smuggling rackets involving gold and arms. The DRI sleuths seized more than 100 illegally imported fire arms, 2 lakh cartridges and huge stock of hides, including that of a leopard, skulls & meat of endangered animals from Delhi and Meerut on 29.04.2017.
Acting on intelligence, the DRI officers intercepted three passengers, including a Slovenian national and supplier of arms, at the IGI Airport, New Delhi. These persons were traveling by Turkish Airlines from Ljubljana, Slovenia via Istanbul carrying 25 illegally imported lethal weapons. They had mis-declared the quantity and value of the arms and ammunitions to Customs and tried to clear these items by misusing the scheme and import policy meant for the renowned shooters.
Searches were conducted by DRI teams at the residences of members of the syndicate in Delhi and Meerut. Huge cache of illegally imported arms and ammunitions, huge stock of hides, skulls & meat of endangered animals were seized from these locations. Firearms of various make & models like Glock (Austria), Beretta (Italy), Arsenal (Italy), Benelle (Italy), Blaser (Germany) etc. were seized along with expensive cameras, thermal imaging binoculars and cartridges.
In the follow up action in Meerut, DRI team found hides of leopard and black buck, skulls with horns of black buck, sambhar and meat of various endangered animals. One of the suspects is believed to have recently killed a leopard near the Jim Corbett area and processed the skin at his residence. DRI jointly seized these items with the Wild Life Authority, Meerut for further necessary action. Unaccounted cash of Rs. One crore was also seized by DRI from one of the locations.
In the second case, the Customs sleuths were tracking a person indulged in smuggling and selling of huge quantity of gold in grey market The suspected person has a manufacturing business of poultry appliances since a long period of time. In recent past he has imported poultry equipments from Dubai too.
Officers were collecting evidence related to his movement and business activities for some time. A unique modus operandi came to the knowledge of officers which were further analysed. It was gathered that one poultry egg incubator was being imported in every consignment along with few dissasembled poultry egg brooder panel. Each time around 40-50 kg of foreign marked gold bars were being concealed in the metallic case (used as packing material) which were subsequently retrieved by the said smuggler using cutter and drill machine at his secret residential flat to immediately sell them in grey market. Gold bars were being wrapped in a thick silver grey paper smeared in adhesive to prevent metallic sound during movement. The concealment was almost impossible to be detected during routine examination of cargo by customs officials at gateway port.
On 13.05.2017(Saturday) morning, the officers of Delhi Zonal Unit of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted a truck coming from Mundra Port, Gujarat in Chander Vihar area of Delhi and recovered 44 kg of foreign marked gold of 995 purity concealed in the metallic case of the poultry egg incubator. Searches were also conducted at residential premise and factory of the accused which led to recovery of several incriminating evidences, proof of previous smuggling and huge amount of hawala transaction to Dubai.
Through this modus operandi, in year 2017 alone, the person has smuggled around 300 kg of foreign mark gold bars worth of Rs 90 crore from Dubai. Quantum of smuggling in the previous years is yet to be ascertained.
Since the market price of gold fluctuates on a daily basis, smugglers normally prefer the air route to smuggle gold to India. However, in the seventies and eighties smuggler used to smuggle gold through sea route by bringing gold in country boats (Arab Dhows) or in containerised cargo landing in coastal areas. After many years, DRI has busted this modus operandi of smuggling of gold in containers.
The truck driver, importer and his associates have been summoned by officers of DRI for interrogation and further investigation.
