Customs finds over 1kg gold hidden in Dubai-Pune flight

Pune: The city airport’s customs unit caught a man from Sangli trying to smuggle more than 1kg of gold into the country from Dubai. The officers seized the precious metal in solid and semi-solid paste form, hidden within the aircraft in which the man travelled here.
Customs officials said that the man’s intention was not to take the gold out at Pune airport.The same aircraft is used in the domestic circuit after landing here, and the plan was for the gold to be picked up elsewhere, they said.
The SpiceJet flight SG-52 takes off from Dubai around 12.30am and reaches Pune around 4.30am. Thereafter, the aircraft usually flies to Delhi from Pune.
A senior customs officer told TOI, “The man had come to Pune from Dubai on SpiceJet flight SG-52. He packaged the gold in a packet within a hollow pipe, which was hidden underneath his seat in the aircraft on which he travelled. The idea was that an accomplice would book the same seat, then extract the gold and exit at another airport as a domestic traveller. Domestic arrivals don’t see any customs checks.”
The total weight of the gold recovered is 1,088.3gm and it costs Rs78.01 lakh.
“Gold is mainly smuggled in from Dubai and this person seems to be a regular carrier. On the basis of profiling, his belongings were checked but nothing objectionable was found in his bags. However, the man’s behaviour was suspicious, so officers asked if he had concealed anything in the aircraft. His answers were not convincing, so officers thoroughly checked his seat and some other parts of the aircraft. This resulted in the recovery of the gold paste,” the officer said, adding that a probe is underway.
On Jan 11, 2019, Pune customs recovered four gold bars weighing almost 4kg and costing Rs1.29 crore, wrapped in black tape and hidden in a toilet of the same flight. In 2016, gold bars worth Rs2.8 crore were found hidden in one of the toilets of the same flight.
In 2023-24, customs cracked 11 cases of attempted smuggling from Pune airport and recovered over 4kg of gold worth Rs2.63 crore. This financial year, four cases have been cracked so far and gold worth Rs1.2 crore has been recovered. The number of cases in the last financial year touched the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, when 11 cases were cracked.
Another customs officer said, “Gold smuggling mainly happens on the Dubai flight. One good thing is that Pune has just one flight to Dubai and another to Singapore. So, all these passengers have to go through proper checks upon arrival.”