 "From gold bars strapped to thighs to diapers: How smugglers like Ranya Rao operate")
India loves its gold — the country is obsessed with the yellow metal.
And what better example of this than the gold smuggling case involving Kannada actor Ranya Rao? The 33-year-old has been arrested in one of the largest gold seizures at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport in recent years, after allegedly smuggling 14.8 kg of the precious metal from Dubai attached to her body.
The ensuing investigation has thrown a spotlight on gold smuggling in the country and the innovative and sneaky methods used by smugglers to avoid detection.
Ranya Rao’s gold rush
On March 3, acting on a tip-off from sources, officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested Rao from the airport. She was nabbed while she attempted to bypass security, carrying 14.8 kg of foreign-origin gold worth Rs 12.56 crore concealed inside a specially modified body-jacket.
Ensuing investigations reveal that 33-year-old Rao, who is the stepdaughter of senior IPS officer Ramachandra Rao, had travelled to Dubai an astonishing 30 times over the past year. According to an India Today report, on each trip, she allegedly smuggled kilos of gold into India, earning around Rs 12-13 lakh per trip.
According to investigators, Ranya strapped 14 old bars, approximately one kg each, to her thighs with tape and crepe bandages and had worn pants to conceal them. She also used VIP channels to exit the airport, which helped her bypass the usually extensive checks done on regular passengers.
In her statement to the DRI, the actor revealed that she not only travelled to Dubai but Europe, America and West Asia too.
Gold smuggling in India
Rao’s case is just the tip of the iceberg of gold smuggling in India. In fact, DRI and Customs officials say that what they nab is a small part of a larger network. There’s an entire ecosystem that exists of carriers and receivers, involving airline and airport authorities that keep this racket running.
In 2024, India seized 4,869.6 kg of smuggled gold. In the year before that, India seized 3,917 kilogrammes of gold and in, 2022, a total of 3,502 kilogrammes of gold was sized.
Officials further note that the way gold is smuggled in has also changed drastically in recent years. Instead of roping economically weaker individuals and labourers into the racket, foreigners and well-educated and well-heeled individuals are being roped in with the hope that they avoid detection.
Airline staffers have also been commonly used to smuggle gold. As one officer told The Print, “What we saw in Bollywood movie Crew is not far from reality, actually. International smuggling syndicates have used airline crew members as carriers.”
Tricks of the gold smuggling racket
While Rao smuggled the gold as bars, this isn’t the route most chosen. Officials say that smugglers have adapted to newer, sneakier methods to bring the gold into the country illegally.
In many cases, the gold is melted down to smaller quantities and then brought in by concealing it in the rectum. For instance, last May, the DRI nabbed a crew member of Air India Express, Surabhi Khatun of Kolkata, who had concealed 960 grammes of gold in her rectum.
Officials note that in some cases, the gold is reduced to capsule form and then concealed in the rectum. In December 2023, a Varanasi man was nabbed with 884 grammes of gold paste worth Rs 55 lakh, which was hidden in his rectum in the form of capsules.
But hiding gold in the rectum has its perils, which has led smugglers to hide it in different items being brought back. There’s the case of gold being stolen into cricket bats, baby diapers and even soaps.
In one instance, officials found cricket bats with gold sheets hidden inside them. There are also multiple instances when smugglers have tried to hoodwink officials by smuggling gold in babies’ diapers. In March 2023, a male passenger who had arrived on an international flight was caught smuggling gold by concealing it in the diaper of his 21-month old daughter at the Mangaluru International Airport. The gold, in the form of a paste, was kept in pouches inside the diaper. However, it was detected by officials during checking.
Women’s sanitary pads have also been used for gold smuggling. Last January, a woman passenger traveling from Abu Dhabi to Ahmedabad was caught by the Ahmedabad Customs at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPI) in Ahmedabad with gold paste concealed in her sanitary napkins. The gold amounted to a total of 763.360 grammes worth a staggering Rs. 49,07,641.
And just as the movie Crew showed Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kriti Sanon smuggling gold disguised as chocolates, so have smugglers done the same.
Some have even gone as far as reducing the gold to a paste, which is moulded into the wheels and other parts of suitcases to avoid detection by Customs.
There are also instances in which people have hidden gold inside their phones and brought it into the country illegally. Munna, who ran such a racket, told The Week that each iPhone is loaded with 225 gm of gold and officials don’t spot it.
But there are even more bizarre ways in which the yellow metal has been brought in illegally in India. There’s the case when a man was stopped at Customs while carrying cardboard boxes containing household appliances, such as a television and a food blender. Closer scrutiny revealed that the staples on the boxes were made of solid gold, weighing 755 grams in total, worth lakhs.
If all this fails, there’s using machines such as televisions and air conditioners. For instance, one man was held when he tried to clear Customs with just a television set. Suspicious of his behaviour, the airport officials decided to take a closer look at his TV. They found that the electronic parts inside were made of solid gold. Gold bars have also been welded inside air conditioner compressors and vehicle spare parts.
The most ingenious and the most high-profile gold smuggling in recent memory is using diplomatic channels. In July 2020, following the arrest of two ex-UAE consulate staffers in Thiruvananthapuram a well-organised smuggling racket was busted. They were using diplomatic privileges to smuggle the gold.
The ‘golden’ states of India
According to DRI officials, the highest number of gold smuggling cases are reported from three main states — Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In 2023, they accounted for 60 per cent of total gold smuggling cases.
In 2023, Maharashtra recorded 1,357 cases with a haul of 997.5 kg. Tamil Nadu had 894 cases with 498.8 kg of gold seized and Kerala saw 728 cases in 2023 with officials seizing nearly 542.36 kg. When asked why these three states see such a high concentration of gold smuggling, one official told The Print that a lot of people from Kerala and Tamil Nadu work in West Asian countries, and a lot of smugglers belong to those places.
And despite officials going to great lengths to stop this practice, it seems that India’s obsession with the yellow metal will keep pushing people to smuggle it into the country.
With inputs from agencies
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