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Hyderabad: An organised gold-smuggling mafia is targeting unemployed men and women from cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf countries to smuggle gold into India.
Unemployed people are being lured into shipping gold to Indian cities in exchange for small sums of money and air tickets, customs officials delving into international drug smuggling with a pan-Indian angle.
“Agents are looking for people who have tried many times to find a job and are desperate to return to India. Because there is no job, they don’t have the money to buy a plane ticket. The agent connects these people with gold smuggling syndicates and through them extracts gold in different forms ,” said an official at Hyderabad Customs.
For one trip, they are paid between Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 30,000, if caught, the amount will be halved. Police officials said the legality involved in the arrest is handled by local attorneys at the gold syndicate. They added that some operatives were earning negligible wages in the Gulf state and identified people who were prepared to smuggle gold back to India out of desperation.
“The so-called gold carriers come from economically disadvantaged families and it is a challenge for them to buy air tickets and pay other expenses. Both men and women readily agreed to be involved in the smuggling,” said an official from the Hyderabad police.
On Tuesday, the Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force (South) team, led by Inspector S Raghavendra, captured four persons carrying 1kg of gold smuggled from the UAE.
Mohammed Khaja Mohiuddin, 38, of Golconda, Hyderabad, hid gold capsules in his rectum and smuggled them into the country. Once he got to a hut in town, he stayed there, waiting to throw it in the bathroom.
Rayees Ahmed Sayeed Hussain, 48, Sarim Hussain, 29, and Fouzan, 38, of Karnataka, came to the city to bring gold to the Mumbai Gold Market and hand it over to people linked to the mafia.
“Rayeez is very important in the consortium in India. He visits all the cities where the gold is smuggled into by the carriers and collects the gold,” a customs official added, adding that there is a large chain in both the Gulf countries and India.
According to police, Khaja Mohiuddin went to the UAE on a visitor visa and ran out of money. One, Mustakin met him there and offered money and air tickets in exchange for smuggling gold into the country.
“After Mustakin handed him three gold capsules, Kaja swallowed it. After landing at RGI airport, he met Rayeez and his colleagues who took him to a hut in Afzalgunj and there Set him up. He threw it in the bathroom and handed it to Rayeez,” the police said.
(eom)
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