DRI seizes 61.5 kg of gold worth over Rs 30 crore at Delhi airport

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday seized 61.5 kg of gold hidden in an imported triangle valve at Delhi’s Air Cargo Complex at Indira Gandhi International Airport.

A large quantity of 24 carat gold was hidden in the imported triangle valve, DRI found. About 61.5 kg of gold, with a market value of Rs. Officials recovered and seized Rs 32.5 crore and 99 per cent purity.

The codename of the secret intelligence operation was ‘Golden Tap’.

DRI seized the air cargo consignment and suspected that it had smuggled gold. The consignment with the triangle valve originated from Guangzhou, China and arrived at Delhi Airport on a Japan Airlines flight.

The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that the complex method of concealment, which requires a careful and time-consuming process, could have prevented detection if it did not have the specific intelligence gathered by DRI officers.

The government further noted that the identification was part of a series of recent seizures of gold from air cargo and courier shipments made by the DRI.

These include the seizure of 11 kg of gold worth over Rs 5.88 crore in Lucknow and Mumbai in May 2022 and the seizure of 16.79 kg of gold worth Rs 8 crore from a courier consignment in July, 2021, followed by the seizure of 80.13 kg of gold. The value of Rs 39.31 crore, from an air cargo shipment in November, 2021 – both in New Delhi, “the ministry said.