Huge gold chain worn by airline passenger seized by customs in Delhi

Undeclared gold and cash worth more than $100,000 intercepted by officials in two incidents

This passenger who travelled on a Dubai to Delhi flight was found to have smuggled melted gold taped to his bald head. He wore a wig to conceal it. Photo: Delhi Customs

Customs officers at Delhi airport on April 17 seized 15 gold bars concealed in the socks of a passenger who disembarked a flight from Dubai. The bars weighed 1,747 grams and would be worth more than $100,000, meaning the passenger was avoiding paying thousands of dollars in import tax. Photo: Delhi Customs

Delhi Customs said a passenger who came off a flight from Dubai was found to have melted down this 443 gram bar of gold into a paste and wrapped it around his legs. Photo: Delhi Customs

A huge gold chain was confiscated from a passenger who was wearing more than the permitted gold allowance. He was further found to have tried to smuggle several bars through Delhi airport to avoid paying thousands of dollars in import duty. Photo: Delhi Customs

A customs officer tears open a hidden compartment of a suitcase to find a large amount of undeclared currency in Saudi riyals and UAE dirhams. The passenger, who landed in Delhi on a flight from Dubai, was detained. Photo: Delhi Customs

Gold worth more than $74,000 and $38,000 in cash was seized by Indian customs officials from passengers travelling to and from Dubai this week.

Undeclared gold was confiscated from an Indian passenger arriving from Dubai into Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on Tuesday, April 19.

The man was wearing a heavy gold chain around his neck and was found with gold bars stuffed in his pockets as he walked through the airport's arrivals area. He was arrested and officials say an investigation is ongoing.

Two days earlier and customs officers at the same airport intercepted an Indian passenger about to board a flight to Dubai with a suitcase full of cash.

The Indian passenger was picked up at IGI Airport on Sunday, April 17, with a bag containing Saudi Arabian riyals and UAE dirhams worth around $38,000.

To crack down on money laundering, authorities have limited the amount of undeclared cash that can be brought from India into Dubai to $3,000.

While there is no limit to how much of a foreign currency can be taken out of India, notes, coins or travellers cheques exceeding $10,000 must be declared.

No customs duties are paid on cash up to Dh100,000 brought into the UAE, but it must be declared by filling out relevant forms prior to departure.

However, restrictions are in place to control the amount of gold taken into India.

Since April 1, 2016, male passengers have been able to bring in up to 20 grams of gold worth Rs50,000 ($654) duty free, while women are allowed to take twice that amount before paying tax.

Gold jewellery exceeding that amount must be declare at customs and import duty paid to the government.

Since February 2021, the tax on imported gold is 10.75 per cent.

Brazen airline smuggling attempts: 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