Indian Airline cabin crew detained for smuggling gold

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): The Directorate of Intelligence (DRI) officials have detained four persons including an Air India flight cabin crew member for attempting to smuggle gold. The incident took place during early morning, Tuesday at the Mumbai International Airport. 6.8 kilograms of gold worth approximately Rs 2 crores were seized.

According to DRI officials, the gold was purchased in Dubai and handed over to a passenger who acted as a carrier. The passenger had reached the Mumbai Airport by Oman Air’s WY 201 flight from Muscat. Around the same time, the Air India flight from Muscat had also arrived. Siddesh Patil, a cabin crew member of the flight collected gold from the passenger. As agreed before, he was supposed to clear the gold out of airport premises and hand it over to the gold smuggling racquet.

Acting of a tip-off, the DRI officials intercepted and arrested both of them. The gold in the form of six 1 kg bars and 800 grams of gold chain was found concealed in plastic bags. The seized gold was worth approximately Rs 2 crores. The culprits were handed over to the Police for further interrogation. The seized gold was handed over to the Customs. According to Air India spokesperson, the accused staff member has been suspended with immediate effect.

This is not the first instance that Air India staff was found involved in gold smuggling acts. During October 2013, three Air India staff was arrested by customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi for bringing gold into the country illegally. Earlier in September, an Air India hostess was arrested for aiding her friend in smuggling nearly 6 kilograms of gold into the country. The DRI had officially written letter to Air India asking to put effective systems in place to sanitize its staff, especially those involved in ground-handling operations.

Usually, airline staff is not subjected to security screening when they leave the premises.