HYDERABAD: The foreign currency being frequently seized from air passengers who attempt to smuggle it illegally to Dubai is meant for payment to gold suppliers in Dubai, who in in turn smuggle the yellow metal back to India.
On Tuesday, an air passenger bound for Dubai was found by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials to be carrying Rs 23 lakh worth of Saudi Arabia’s riyal and United Arab Emirates (UAE) dirham currency.
During questioning, the DRI officials found that the passenger was taking the foreign currency at the behest of some businessmen to buy gold. “It was found to be a racket in which some businessmen are sending hired couriers by giving them the task of paying gold suppliers in Dubai. Later, the same businessmen will send another person to Dubai to smuggle the gold back into Hyderabad. In none of the cases, we could directly nail anyone and link it to gold smuggling but we can conclude for sure that carrying huge foreign cash is meant for gold smuggling,” DRI additional director general MK Singh told TOI. In the last one year, DRI officials cracked at least four cases in which they seized foreign currency like euro, dirham, riyal and currencies of other West Asian countries running into crores. The couriers who are taking the risk are being offered nearly 1 per cent of cash they are carrying as commission.
Though this smuggling of foreign currency to Dubai is rampant from other airports, smugglers are testing their waters in Hyderabad airport since it is a smaller airport compared to Mumbai and Delhi, with less security. In the chain of this racket, there are gangsters, real estate businessmen and jewellers.
