NEW DELHI: Two Virgin Atlantic cabin crew have been arrested for allegedly smuggling 4.2kg of gold worth £104,000 while working on a flight to India.
The cabin crew have been accused of wearing the gold or putting it in their hand luggage on the service from London to Delhi.
While reportedly laden with jewellery and ingots they were busy serving passengers on the eight-hour flight but were intercepted by officials when they landed in India.
India is battling gold smuggling and has imposed a ten per cent import duty – but experts say up to 250 tonnes of the precious metal is smuggled in each year.
The two alleged smugglers are said to be friends from India who work regularly together on routes to and from Delhi.
A Virgin spokesman said: ‘We are aware of a situation involving our cabin crew in Delhi. We are fully co-operating with the authorities.
‘However, as this is an ongoing investigation we are unable to comment further at this time’.
The two suspects may have had secret pockets in their luggage for the gold and may have worn some of jewellery so they could claim it was their own.
