Friday, December 6, 2013

Interesting smuggling news. "We are spending sleepless nights." Pity the poor Indian customs inspectors (except, of course, those who are on the take).

In India, smugglers move gold like narcotics.
"Gold and narcotics operate as two different syndicates but gold smuggling has become more profitable and fashionable," said Kiran Kumar Karlapu, an official at Mumbai's Air Intelligence Unit."
"There has been a several-fold increase in gold smuggling this year after restrictions from the government, which has left narcotics behind."
[snip]
"Though the quantum of seizures has increased, in our opinion it reflects only 1 to 2 percent of total smuggling," said a revenue intelligence officer in Mumbai who declined to be named. "Dubai is still the number one place from where gold gets in and Singapore is slowly emerging. Sri Lanka has become a staging point."
[snip]
Though the number of arrests made in India has increased, those that get caught are usually only the "carriers" who transport gold for as little as 10,000 rupees. The people behind the smuggling are rarely identified. In an effort to change that, Mumbai customs offers a reward of up to 50,000 rupees per kg of bullion seized for informers in gold smuggling cases. Cocaine and heroin informers get only up to 40,000 rupees and 20,000 rupees respectively.

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