DRI seizes 85 kg gold in ‘Op Molten Metal’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 19

In an intelligence operation code-named “Molten Metal”, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a racket of smuggling gold in machine parts and then melting it into bars.

The operation that included searches at farmhouses and apartments in plush localities in South Delhi and Gurugram led to the seizure of 85.535 kg of gold and the arrest of four foreigners — two from South Korea and one each from Taiwan and China.

The DRI had released intelligence, indicating that gold smuggled in the form of machinery parts was being melted and moulded into cylinders before being disposed of in the local market.

Acting upon the intelligence, DRI officers examined an import consignment at the air cargo complex at the Indira Gandhi International airport here.

The consignment contained electroplating machines fitted with transformers whose laminates were found to have been made of gold, coated with nickel, essentially to hide the identity of the gold. Approximately one kg of gold was recovered from each of the 80 imported electroplating machines, stated a news release.