According to the officials, they intercepted a woman who had come to Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
New Delhi: To smuggle gold in India, criminals are adopting unique modi operandi. The custom department on Monday arrested a woman who had concealed gold worth Rs 25 lakh in her shoe heel.
The custom officials have earlier busted separate gangs of smugglers who were illegally transporting gold concealed in microwave ovens, toys, wafers and confectionery boxes.
According to the officials, they intercepted a woman who had come to Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Also read: Chennai: 1.2kg gold seized from six people at airport
Custom officials suspected that something was fishy after she had crossed the green channel. She was thoroughly frisked and checked after which gold jewellery items worth Rs 25 lakh was recovered from the heels of her footwear.
Smugglers are adopting novel modus operandi to smuggle gold into the country. The customs officials had recently arrested a wheelchair-bound senior citizen for allegedly trying to smuggle gold valued at around Rs 93 lakh. In April, an Air India security officer and a Japanese national were among three persons arrested by the customs for allegedly smuggling into the country gold worth about Rs 2.3 crore.
Officers at the airport said that smuggles are also hiding gold in the handle of their trolley bags.
From gold bars concealed in baby diapers to stuffing the precious metal in papaya, smugglers keep finding newer ways to hoodwink the authorities at the airport. Other dubious ways were gold stitched into a brassiere, stuffed in the rod of a baby walker, tied along with thigh guards and waist.
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