DRI nabs man hiding gold worth Rs 66 lakh in microwave oven at Hyderabad airport

Based on a tip-off, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Friday arrested a man at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) on Thursday for smuggling over 2kg of gold work Rs 66 lakh in a microwave oven he was carrying from Dubai.

The accused who landed in Hyderabad from Dubai in an Oman Airlines Flight was heading home in a cab when the DRI team intercepted the vehicle on the airport main road at Shamshabad with the help of local police on Thursday night.

Upon dismantling the microwave oven, the DRI found 46 gold plates coated with silver concealed in oven’s transformer. “When you turn on the oven, it works for some time. Smuggling gangs come up with such innovative methods to smuggle gold from



time-to-time,” said a DRI official to Times of India. The passenger did not have any documents to prove his purchase of the gold either.

The DRI then melted the gold plates and recovered 2kg of gold. Upon questioning, the accused told the DRI team that he visited Dubai in the first week of December on a travel visa in search of a job but was unable to find one. He then got in touch with a gold smuggling gang who recruited him to act as their courier to carry the gold to Hyderabad for a commission of Rs 20,000.

The accused was supposed to hand over the oven to a contact of the gold smugglers in Hyderabad. The accused claims he does not know any of the smuggling gang members, the DRI has however booked him under the Customs Act.