Over the past four days, alert customs officials have foiled three cases of gold smuggling and arrested three persons, including a 35-year-old woman from Bengaluru, and recovered gold in the form of biscuits, rods and wires concelaed in their baggage. The total value of the seized gold is said to be worth over ₹45 lakh. According to the officials, 50-year-old Ashfaq Ahmed Kadke, a native of Bhatkal, was arrested after the officials found gold rods fitted to support a fruit juicer found in his baggage. Kadke, who landed at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) from Dubai, later confessed to the officials that he was offered a commission to handover the juicer to his friend’s contact in Bengaluru. He said he was a FMCG dealer and often visited Dubai to buy goods. In another incident, the officials caught 35-year-old Farhana Begum Syed, a single mother, who was found concealing four gold biscuits of 100 grams each in her undergarments. Farhana, who went to Bangkok in search of a job, was reportedly asked by her friend to handover the gold to a contact outside the KIA for a price of ₹10,000. Similarly, on August 1, the officials caught a 24-year-old Sri Lankan national and recovered three gold wires weighing 511 grams concealed in the lining of his suitcase. Inshaf Mohammed confessed that he was a trader of ready-made garments, who used to come to Bengaluru to pick up goods and sell it in Sri Lanka. He claimed that his friend had asked him to handover the suitcase to a contact outside KIA for a commission of ₹10,000.
