Mumbai Airport Customs’ Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) has arrested a trader from Surat for an attempt to smuggle at the airport. Officials suspect he has been involved in smuggling valuables even in the past.
A senior official from AIU said they arrested one Priyank Praveen Kumar Morakhiya who arrived from Hong Kong late night Friday. While crossing the green channel, AIU inspector Birender P. Gautam intercepted him after finding his behaviour suspicious. Officials found gold, diamonds and two wristwatches amounting to Rs 87.71 lakh upon searching him.
Confirming this, principal commissioner A.P.S. Suri said, “We recovered 1.09 grammes of gold valued at Rs 23.53 lakh, 456 pieces of diamond worth Rs 16 lakh, and two Audemar Piguet wristwatches worth Rs 48.18 lakh. In total, goods and gold worth Rs 87.71 lakh were recovered from him.”
AIU officials are treating this as a special case as this is the first attempt at smuggling watches in the past five months and a smuggling attempt from Hong Kong has come to light after a long time as Hong Kong is a passive sector for gold smuggling.
AIU sources said that Morakhiya is a Surat-based trader and officials have unearthed a new trend where traders themselves are involved in smuggling. Earlier, traders never directly came into the picture and there was a trend of using gold carriers with people from Kasargod, Karnataka, typically used to smuggle things for traders for monetary benefits.
