Custom Dept more vigilant to prevent gold smuggling at IGI airport

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, April 22

The Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, has become a place of choice for  gold smugglers. 

In recent past, incidents of gold smuggling have risen dramatically, especially smugglers from South East Asian countries, are more into it, said to a custom officer.

It is to be noted that smugglers are adopting different new means to escape from the eyes of the custom officers. According to a senior custom officer, smugglers are hiding gold in electronic and food items and few in their footwear.

Though, the smugglers are very clever and smart but the custom officers are always one step ahead of them, said the officer.

The custom officers have been given special profile training to identify these smugglers. Howsoever, by the help of machines also it is helping to solve few of the cases. Officers are being trained to bust smuggling rackets and treat passengers politely, too.

“The Custom Department is conducting the training programme to re-orient staff's skills and increase its competence. Soft skills are part of the training course because internationally the role of customs is moving from law enforcement to facilitation,” said a custom officer posted at IGI Airport.

“In profile identification training we are thought to check the passenger from the time his flight lands and we keep a tab on suspicious person by CCTV cameras. In most of the cases we are able to detect accused because we wait till the passenger comes near green channel. Or in some cases we are following the suspicious passenger in plain clothes and observing his activity. Many times we are also been tipped off regarding suspicious passengers from the airport they have boarded the flight and sometimes their baggage is also being marked,” said a senior customs officer.

According to the senior custom official, there are two ways to identify the smugglers. First by the inputs provided about smugglers and the second is by profiling. On getting the input about the smugglers the intelligence agency is alerted. Whereas under profiling the custom officials are given special training.