This story is from November 1, 2018

​Delhi: 5 Bhutanese nationals held for smuggling 20kg gold worth Rs 6 crore

​Delhi: 5 Bhutanese nationals held for smuggling 20kg gold worth Rs 6 crore
(Representative image)
NEW DELHI: Five Bhutanese nationals were arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Wednesday at New Delhi Railway station with 20kg of smuggled gold valued Rs 6 crore.
This was not the first time that Bhutanese nationals have been caught, by an Indian agency, engaged in smuggling. Just last week, in multiple operations, the DRI had seized 100 kg gold bars worth over Rs 32 crore and arrested seven persons, including a Bhutanese national.
"There has been a spurt in the number of seizures by DRI of gold being smuggled into India from China, Myanmar and Bhutan via the land border.
Such smuggling of gold into India is expected to peak during the festive season due to increased domestic demand and high differential between the price of gold in India and the source countries," a senior DRI official said.
"The gold bars, weighing 1 kg each, have distinct Chinese, Australian and Swiss origin marks," the agency said, indicating that the international smuggling syndicate had earlier been using Myanmar land borders and now Bhutan to bring in illicit consignments to India.
Last week, in a nationwide crackdown, DRI officers seized 55 kg of gold bars from Siliguri, 33 kg at New Delhi railway station and 13 kg in four other seizures made at Chennai, Bengaluru, Madurai and Indore airports.
The smuggled gold seized at airports had originated from Colombo and Singapore and were concealed "under the life jacket pouch and hollow pipes under the aircraft seats".
"These seizures are part of the continued crackdown by DRI on gold smuggling and consequent leakage of government revenue, the black economy as well as foreign exchange was illicitly taken out of the country to make payments for such illegal import," a senior DRI official said.
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