Mizoram’s unfenced international borders make gold smuggling from Myanmar, Bangladesh easy

The porous stretches of north-eastern India’s borders, especially around Mizoram, with Myanmar and Bangladesh continued to be extensively used for gold smuggling, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.

The agency stated that the recent recovery of smuggled gold has revealed that the smugglers are adopting “ingenious ways” to transport gold, particularly through Mizoram.

Acting on specific intelligence and in three coordinated interceptions at Patna, Delhi and Mumbai, the DRI seized 65.46 kg of foreign-origin gold worth Rs 33.40 crore recently. “The gold was consigned from Aizawl to Mumbai in domestic courier consignment. The gold was concealed in gunny bags declared as clothes,” the DRI said in a statement.

“Although the porous borders have been used for smuggling in the past, 11 cases of gold seizures of 121 kg in September alone show that the Northeast corridor is still extensively being used by smugglers deploying ingenious ways of concealment," it said.

While recovering another 23.23 kg gold worth Rs 11.65 crore, the DRI sleuths unearthed another modus operandi in which the smugglers created a small cavity in cars to conceal the gold. The consignment was smuggled from Myanmar through Champhai and Aizawl in Mizoram and was bound for Kolkata.

The DRI identified two vehicles with four passengers and intercepted them. “The gold in this case was cast to fit in the specifically made cavity inside the cross-member metal pipe connecting the right and left rails of the chassis. This was behind the rear wheels and suspension in both the vehicles. The recovered gold had been smuggled into India from Myanmar through the Zokhawthar border in Mizoram. Four persons have been arrested in the case so far,” said DRI.

Mizoram shares a border with both Myanmar and Bangladesh but a vast portion of the borders has still remained unfenced. This helps the smugglers to illegally pump in items into India.