Youtuber's souvenir shop at Chennai airport used for 267kg gold haul worth Rs 167 crore; 9 arrested

CHENNAI: An innocuous souvenir shop rented inside the departure terminal at Chennai airport was used by an eight-member to smuggle 267kg gold, worth ₹167 crore, in a span of just two months.
Customs officials busted the module on Thursday and arrested nine people including a YouTuber, Sabir Ali, who owns the shop, and two transit passengers.
It all began a few days ago, when the air intelligence unit of the customs department secured an employee of the souvenir shop on suspicion and found 1kg gold in powder form on him.He had hidden it in his rectum after receiving it from a transit passenger. Both were taken into custody by the officials.
Initially customs officials thought it was a one-off incident involving agency workers being engaged by smugglers. However, interrogation laid bare a well-oiled modus operandi run by a professional gold-smuggling syndicate.
"Sabir Ali rented the shop paying a huge sum to Vidvedaa PRG, the third-party agency engaged by Airports Authority India (AAI), two months ago. He set up a souvenir shop as a front and employed seven youngsters to manage the shop," said R Srinivasa Naik, principal commissioner of customs, Chennai airport.
The employees were used to sneak in the smuggled gold handed over to them by Sri Lanka-bound transit passengers.
The gold would exchange hands at the lavatory and would be handed over to receivers outside the airport. "Since the employees carried identity cards provided by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), they won't be subjected to searches often," said another official.
Based on the statements of the arrested people and verification of their phone conversation, customs sleuths have confirmed that the gang had smuggled 267kg gold worth 167 crore in two months. The gold arrived from Gulf countries as well as Singapore, said officials.
Gold smuggling: All nine suspects sent to jail; probe on
Customs officials suspect that the gold smuggling syndicate stationed in Chennai, Sri Lanka and abroad might have together funded Sabir Ali to rent a shop inside the airport, so that they could smuggle gold without getting noticed by the enforcement agencies.
"The workers have been trained to hide gold in powder form in their rectum so as to avoid getting caught by the scanner. It is a well-oiled network and well executed plan," said customs officials.
All the nine - Sabir Ali, seven of his employees and the transit passenger - were remanded in judicial custody.
Further investigation is on to ascertain the identity of the people operating from behind.