Gold hidden inside mobile phones and body cavities on Dubai to India flights this week were the latest in a long list of recent smuggling cases.
Customs officials in India found smuggled gold worth $74,000 on Dubai to India flights.
Officials warned they are on high alert for people trying to dodge India's luxury tax, which must be paid on arrival and is often more than 10 per cent of the total gold value.
Recently, authorities in Chennai also recently recovered gold worth about $340,000 hidden underneath fake hairpieces of passengers headed for the UAE.
The travellers were set for flights to Sharjah and Dubai, but were rumbled by their suspicious hairstyles. They were also found to be concealing $33,000 in cash.
And it is not just Chennai reporting a spike in recent interceptions.
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15 audacious smuggling attempts - in pictures
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US Customs arrested this Fly Jamaica Airways cabin crew attendant, who was found to have 4kg of cocaine strapped to his legs and concealed under tights and trousers. The haul at New York's JFK Airport would have been worth about $160,000 on the street. Photo: US Customs and Border Protection -
Police in Bogata, Colombia arrested this Canadian woman for trying to smuggle 2kg of cocaine on to a Canada-bound flight in September, 2013. The woman pretended to be pregnant and hid the drugs in a latex belly. AFP -
This spectacularly conspicuous attempt to smuggle €30,000 of cocaine ended in arrest for a Colombian passenger in July, 2019. The man, 65, concealed one kilo of the illicit powder by gluing it to his head. He was caught when police noticed the height of his black toupee, when his flight from Bogota landed in Barcelona. Photo: Policia Nacional -
Australian customs officers foiled this attempt to smuggle the party drug ecstasy into the country, concealed in a Mr Potato Head toy. Officers at Sydney International Mail Centre cracked open the Toy Story figurine and found 293g of the drug in October, 2007. AFP -
Portuguese police released this image of multicoloured swim trunks with two brown rubber bags — supposed to look like buttocks — attached. The passenger who was wearing them was caught at the airport in Lisbon, off a flight from Belem in northern Brazil in February 2018. The fake buttocks contained enough cocaine for 5,000 doses. Photo: Portuguese National Police -
Guatemalan smugglers were found to have scooped out the cream filling of dozens of vanilla wafers and replaced it with wraps of cocaine. US Customs and Border Protection arrested the Guatemalan passenger carrying them at George Bush Airport in Houston in April 2015. The nearly 2 kilos of cocaine would have a street value of more than $60,000. AP -
Few airports in the world will let you through security without removing your shoes, due to the threat from terrorism and to tackle drug smuggling. Australian Customs discovered nearly half a kilo of heroin in the hollowed out soles of these shoes. AFP -
Customs officers at Dubai's main airport foiled 155 attempts to smuggle 'talismans and black magic items', related to witchcraft and sorcery, in 2015. Officers said criminals take advantage of often vulnerable people with superstitions. Photo: Dubai Customs -
In August 2019, 755kg of methamphetamine was found hidden under frozen cow hide from Mexico. The crystal meth was wrapped in aluminium foil and sandwiched among 18 pallets of hide that arrived in Sydney aboard a shipping container marked 'Salty Bovine Skin'. AFP -
Crystal meth wraps are removed from inside hollowed out hardwood flooring at a warehouse in near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in April, 2017. The haul had been shipped from China and had a street value of $681m. AFP -
London-based seafood salesman Gilbert Khoo was sentenced to jail at a British court in March, 2020 for smuggling live 'glass eels' to Hong Kong. He was caught with 200kg and the total haul between 2015 and 2017 was worth about $69m. Photo: National Crime Agency -
Khoo, pictured holding two pieces of gold, was arrested after Border Force officers seized a consignment at Heathrow Airport. Photo: National Crime Agency -
Dubai Police released this image of drugs in a hollowed out book. It was part of a consignment of two tonnes of drugs of various types. A multinational police operation tackled criminal activities related to drug smuggling and trafficking in Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Austria in November 2017. Photo: Dubai Police -
A passenger tried to smuggle a whole roasted hog from Peru to Atlanta in November, 2016, for Thanksgiving. US Customs staff seized the hidden pig, which is banned by laws designed to prevent foot and mouth disease and swine fever. Photo: US Customs and Border Protection -
Drugs are hidden inside a microwave as seizures are displayed at Dubai Airport in July 2019. Chris Whiteoak / The National -
One of the largest drug busts in Dubai's history was made at Jebel Ali Port in May 2019. Sniffer dogs alerted officers to a shipment that was found to contain 5.7 million Captagon pills. Photo: Dubai Police -
Captagon is a type of amphetamine originally used for attention deficit disorders, but was banned in the 1980s due to its highly addictive nature. Smugglers in Syria have thrived during the chaos of the war there, and many shipments have been traced to the Arab state. Photo: Dubai Police
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Authorities at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, the main transit hub for Uttar Pradesh, seized 752 grams of gold worth around $49,000 from two passengers landing from Dubai and Sharjah last week.
The gold ‘biscuits’ were hidden inside the shoes of one passenger and concealed in the body of the other.
Smugglers are constantly changing the way they attempt to import gold and cash illegally across borders.
On Saturday, March 27, Delhi Customs intercepted an Indian passenger on a Spicejet flight from Dubai who had hidden 798 grams of silver-coated gold wires on the frame of their trolley bags.
The hidden bullion was worth an estimated $44,270 (Dh162,600) and the passenger was arrested under India’s Customs Act.
Gold smugglers have been caught trying to carry illegal gold from the UAE into India nearly a dozen times already this year.
Hand-carrying gold on a plane is not in itself illegal, but passengers do need to consider the quantity they are importing or exporting to and from India, and have the correct documentation.
The National looked into the rules
Importing gold into the UAE
The UAE is one of the major importers and re-exporters of gold and jewellery, in part because there is no import duty tax or value added tax on gold bars brought into the country.
Travellers are required to declare cash, or any other financial instrument exceeding Dh100,000, according to the UAE’s government website.
The cost of gold varies from day to day, but in practice this means you can import about 500 grams of gold without declaring it to customs.
Gold traders often wish to import much more than that, and they can do so entirely legally, according to Jeff Rhodes, founder and managing consultant for Rhodes Precious Metals Consultancy, DMCC.
"Dubai is simply the most well-organised, regulated and most competitive market in the world for gold and diamond jewellery.
"That's the reason why Dubai is known as the City of Gold. It's a very laissez-faire, entrepreneurial place.
"There are no restrictions on how much gold you can bring in and there are no restrictions on the amount you can take out, either as bars or jewellery," he said.
However, there are regulations.
If the value of the gold is more than Dh100,000, then customs officers in UAE airports will expect to see a certificate of origin or purchase receipt when you enter the country.
This measure of authentication was brought in by the UAE authorities to combat money laundering and suspicious financial activities.
Also, the Federal Tax Authority charges 5 per cent import duty on gold jewellery, although if the jewellery is imported for re-export then no customs duty needs to be paid.
This occurs in the UAE because the country is a hub for the rest of the Middle East, and some jewellery is imported and re-exported to countries around the region.
Gold jewellery also attracts 5 per cent value added tax, although when retailers sell the items to their customers, this VAT is passed on to them.
Exporting gold from the UAE
There is no limit on the amount of gold an individual can export from the UAE, and there are no taxes to be paid as you leave the country.
In fact, if you are a visitor to the UAE, and you have purchased gold jewellery or artefacts, you can claim back the VAT at the airport.
The rules for importing the precious metal vary from country to country, and these need to be considered before you board a flight from the UAE to travel abroad.
For example, India has clear rules regarding the importation of gold.
As of April 1, 2016, male passengers can bring in up to 20 grams of gold worth Rs50,000 ($688) duty free.
Female passengers can bring in 40 grams of gold worth Rs100,000 ($1,377).
If a traveller wants to bring in more gold jewellery, they need to declare the amount at customs and pay import duty to the government.
This fee changed in February 2021 when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut import duties on gold and silver from 12.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent, but imposed a 2.5 per cent cess – an extra, separate tax.
The total import duty now is 10.75 per cent, compared to 12.5 per cent before the changes.
The government said they hoped the reduction would make smuggling less attractive and improve revenue.
Up to 120 tonnes of gold were smuggled into India in 2019, according to the World Gold Council’s Indian operations.
