Indian customs seize gold worth $500,000 from Dubai flight passengers

The pair concealed 8.17kg of the precious metal inside a range of household appliances

Two passengers on an Emirates flight were arrested on their arrival in Chennai for trying to smuggle more than $500,000 in gold. Photo: Chennai customs twitter

Passengers going to India from Dubai tried to dodge import taxes by smuggling more than half a million dollars worth of gold in household appliances.

The pair, who had travelled on an Emirates flight, concealed 8.17kg of gold in a rice cooker, juicer, food mincer and nebuliser.

Customs officers seized the haul, which was worth $542,745, and arrested them on their arrival in Chennai on Sunday.

July has been a busy month for customs authorities in Indian airports, after several passengers were arrested in similar incidents.

Airport authorities in Mumbai intercepted an Indian passenger who arrived on a flight from Dubai on Thursday, July 22.

Customs officers recovered 24 gold rods weighing 348 grams hidden inside a speaker and luggage.

The gold was valued at about $20,000 and would have attracted an import duty of 10.75 per cent, if declared.

Two days before that, Chennai Air Customs recovered a stash of gold hidden inside a passenger on an Emirates flight from Dubai.

The 810g, worth about $54,000, was concealed in four bundles of gold paste and smuggled into India. The passenger was arrested.

And on July 14, a passenger was arrested at Delhi airport after gold was found illegally concealed inside a mobile phone to avoid the payment of import duties.

The Indian national was intercepted shortly after landing on an Emirates flight and found to have hidden 623g of gold worth more than $35,500.

Under further investigation, the passenger admitted he had previously smuggled 730g of gold into the country from Dubai. He was later arrested.

While there is no limit on the amount of tax-free gold a person can export from the UAE, India has clear rules on importing precious metals.

Men can import up to 20g of gold worth not more than 50,000 rupees ($671) duty-free.

Female passengers are allowed to bring in 40g of gold worth not more than 100,000 rupees without paying tax.

Travellers who want to bring more gold into India must declare it on arrival at border control and pay import duty.

The 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.

Most brazen smuggling attempts ever - in pictures

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