Catering employee in flight caught stealing smuggled gold in Hyderabad

Hyderabad:The officers of DRI HZU intercepted one person carrying smuggled foreign origin gold in the Hyderabad city area on 27th November.

Interestingly, the accused turned out to be an employee of an airplane catering service and had been involved in retrieval of smuggled foreign origin gold concealed in flights originating from the Middle East.

However, the accused managed to steal the smuggled gold at the time of unloading or loading food trays from the aircraft. During this time, he would retrieve the concealed gold and carry it out with him.

Two gold bars weighing 1 kg each bearing foreign markings and 2 thin gold sheets weighing 100 gm each, both worth Rs. 1.09 cr were recovered.

The accused has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. Further investigation is in progress.

Meanwhile, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport saw four gold smuggling cases in the last one week.

On 27th November, the Customs officials at RGIA on Saturday seized 410 grams of gold worth about Rs. 20.30 lakh from a passenger. The gold was concealed inside a talcum powder tin and suitcase frames. The gold was seized from a passenger who arrived in RGIA from Dubai on an Indigo flight.

On 25th November, the Customs had registered a case against a passenger for smuggling 320 gms of gold worth Rs. 15.75 lakh concealed inside deodorant bottles and toy cars. The passenger arrived from Dubai on an Air India flight.

On 23rd November, the Customs department had registered a case against a passenger for smuggling 233.4 gms of gold worth Rs. 11.56 lakh. The passenger who arrived from Sharjah had concealed gold in two wristwatches.

On 22nd November, the Customs officials seized gold, foreign currency, and iPhones worth Rs. 29 lakh from three passengers at RGIA.