The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence arrested eight people involved in a gold-and-diamond smuggling operation at Mumbai airport.
In this latest incident, the DRI has arrested eight people, including an employee at a store inside the airport and foreign nationals, and seized gold worth Rs 12.64 crore and diamonds valued at Rs 1.10 crore. Investigators allegedly learned that Ansari was to receive diamonds from passenger Mohammed Balli, 24, who was scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Dubai.
Passengers allegedly arrived one-by-one with egg-shaped ‘gold capsules’ and approached him, according to the DRI. MUMBAI: An alleged international gold-and-diamond smuggling racket operating at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has been busted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), with investigators uncovering an alleged hand-off system involving airport ground staff and passengers arriving on international routes. DRI officers intercepted the two near a departure-gate washroom. But investigators say the diamond hand-off was only one part of the operation. The agency then allegedly turned the airport into a surveillance zone. The passengers arrested in the operation were identified as Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan nationals Shahadat Hossain, Mubarak Hossen, Mohammed Jual, Mohammed Uddin, Mohammed Abubakar and Mohammed Hasan, along with Ansari and Balli. The court subsequently remanded the accused to judicial custody.