Gold Paste Beats Detectors at Airport

[ABS News Service/29.01.2022]

Officers struggling to curb smuggling of the precious metal because detectors at city airport do not raise an alarm if the yellow metal is carried in semi-liquid state; say need to adopt new technologies

Last week's seizure of gold worth Rs 80 lakh in paste form has raised concerns among Customs officers as metal detectors at the airport cannot identify the yellow element in semi-liquid form. According to Customs officers, they intercepted a Sudanese national at the city airport on January 21 and recovered gold paste of 1.86 kg from him. "The gold in paste form was ingeniously concealed in a pouch wrapped with adhesive tapes kept between the rods of trolley meant for transporting the baggage," a Customs officer told mid-day.

This trend of smuggling gold in paste or wax form has been going on since 2018, said Customs officers. "Powdered gold is dissolved in orange-tinged nitric acid and hydrochloric acid which is known as aqua regia. The gold can later be retrieved through a chemical procedure," the officer said. Stressing the need for having better technologies, the officer said, "The system needs to be updated as this trend has become a huge challenge to detect cases at airports like Mumbai where the passenger footfall is quite high as compared to other airports."

According to the Union ministry of finance, around 9,300 kg of gold was seized at airports across the country last year. Officers said they are exploring ways to have machines that can detect gold in paste form. "We are working on this and soon we are going have a system in place," said a senior Customs officer.

Packed in pouches, gold paste is mostly carried in rectum and jeans with layers. In a few instances, the Customs has come across gold powder mixed with the popular energy drink Tang. Officers said most cases of smuggling gold in past form have been exposed through human intelligence or by simply studying the behaviour of passengers. Agreeing that this is not a foolproof method, they fear a lot of gold is being sneaked into the country illegally.