One very serious case has now come out from Mumbai where Directorate of Revenue Intelligence made major arrests connected to international gold smuggling operation at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on July 16 . And honestly,the details of how this whole network was apparently running are quite unsettling .
According to DRI sources,operation was triggered by specific intelligence regarding one local person,Himanshu Upadhyay (25),and his suspected involvement in smuggling activities at airport . Officers were watching closely and that surveillance apparently paid off quickly .
Officers reportedly observed Upadhyay handing over two black pouches to Mohid Hasan Siddiqui (32) . That handover moment triggered their intervention right then . Upon questioning,Upadhyay revealed pouches contained smuggled gold dust in wax form,which he had received from Feroz Sayyed (47),a store manager working at airport itself .
And that detail about airport staff involvement is what makes this case particularly disturbing .
Further investigation revealed Sayyed was reportedly collecting smuggled gold from transit passengers and then passing it to Upadhyay for further distribution . So this was not some random one-time incident . This looks like structured,organised syndicate with people placed at different points inside airport system itself .
Three passengers from Philippines were also arrested — Lakim Alimudin Nasser,Benny Lloyd Olivo,and Christine Joy Andaya Pornasdoro . Nasser reportedly handed over those pouches to Upadhyay in first place . In total,four gold bars weighing 5,251 grams valued at around ₹7.50 crore were confiscated .
Few key facts standing out from this case:
- Four gold bars weighing 5,251 grams were seized,valued at approximately ₹7.50 crore.
- Syndicate allegedly operated with direct assistance from airport employees.
- Three Filipino nationals arrested were traveling from Philippines to Thailand as transit passengers .
Now here is where legal situation becomes genuinely complicated . Defense lawyer Prabhakar Tripathi has raised one important argument — that three Filipino passengers were merely in transit,traveling from Philippines to Thailand,and had never actually entered India formally . They also had not approached Customs for any clearance .
So prosecution claiming smuggling into India becomes questionable in that context . Transit passengers sitting in airport without entering country… does that legally count as smuggling into India ? That is not simple question to answer .
Honestly,this whole operation shows how international smuggling networks function . They do not need someone to dramatically cross borders with gold hidden in bags . They use transit routes,trusted insiders,layered handoffs… everything happens quietly inside systems that most people trust completely .
And knowing that airport staff were allegedly part of this network makes situation even harder to sit with . These are people working inside one of country's biggest international airports .
DRI is continuing investigation right now and case will likely get more complicated as legal arguments around transit status get tested properly in court . Whether those three Filipinos actually had criminal intent or were just unwitting carriers or something in between… that part still feels far from settled honestly .
