DRI Busts Pan-India Gold Smuggling Ring, Seizes 6.61 kg Worth Rs 10.36 Crore
DRI seizes 6.61 kg of foreign-origin gold worth Rs 10.36 crore and arrests 11, including a mastermind, in a pan-India courier-based smuggling crackdown.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has dismantled a pan-India gold smuggling syndicate, seizing 6.61 kg of foreign-origin gold valued at approximately Rs 10.36 crore and arresting eleven people, including one of the operation's masterminds.
Acting on specific intelligence about regular smuggling of foreign-origin gold through the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal and Assam, followed by its movement to other parts of the country via courier consignments, the DRI carried out a coordinated multi-city operation on 23–24 September 2026. Simultaneous interceptions and searches were conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Guwahati.
Live courier consignments carrying smuggled gold — booked from Guwahati and Kolkata for delivery in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad — were intercepted during the operation. Seven recipients of the consignments were apprehended, while searches at the premises of consignors and shippers in Kolkata led to three more arrests. In follow-up action, one of the masterminds coordinating the dispatch and delivery of the smuggled gold was apprehended in Mumbai.
Investigators found that the syndicate split the smuggled gold into multiple small courier consignments for transport from Guwahati and Kolkata to recipients in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, where it was disposed of in the domestic market. The consignors, shippers and recipients were found to be paper entities or persons with no legitimate gold transactions, indicating deliberate use of the courier network to conceal and distribute the smuggled metal.
The recovered gold, in bar form, was seized under the relevant provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.
Preliminary scrutiny of documentary evidence revealed the scale of the syndicate's operations: in just nine months of the current calendar year, approximately 318 kg of smuggled gold, valued at around Rs 475 crore, had already been transported and delivered through the same courier-based network. Further investigation is underway.
The operation reflects the DRI's continued focus on disrupting organised gold-smuggling networks at every stage of the supply chain, including the use of unconventional logistics and courier channels to distribute smuggled gold across the country.