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By Divyesh Singh: A man trying to smuggle gold from Saudi Arabia to India was arrested by officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at Nagpur airport on Tuesday. Mumbai’s NCB zonal director Amit Ghawate said that the man was carrying 3.3 kg of gold worth Rs 1.8 crore in the form of a paste.
After the man was apprehended, the case was handed over to Nagpur Customs for further investigation.
The NCB said that they had received a tip-off about a probable smuggling activity being planned from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The drug enforcement agency said, according to the intelligence received, the plan was to smuggle the gold through an Indian citizen working in Jeddah.
The planners chose Nagpur airport to avoid high security checks usually present at other international airports. On Monday, NCB received the name of the person from Jeddah who was tasked with the smuggling job.
Based on this, his flight details were obtained and a team of NCB officials headed for Nagpur airport to intercept the man whose flight landed in the intervening night between May 8 and 9.
NCB officials then requested Nagpur Customs to stop the man from leaving the airport.
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He was carrying the gold in the form of a semi-liquid paste and had stored it in seven white packets. The packets were stitched to the inner side of his jeans in a bid to conceal them from authorities.
The man, identified as A. Khan, confessed to NCB officials that the paste was, in fact, gold. NCB officials said Khan had been working in a Saudi Arabia-based company for the last 3 years.
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