Overview
- DRI’s Mumbai unit, acting on specific intelligence, ran Operation Dhahabu Blitz and detained 24 women arriving from Nairobi with 29.37 kg of gold worth ₹37.74 crore hidden in bags and clothing.
- The agency’s Bengaluru team seized 3 kg of gold valued at over ₹5 crore at Kempegowda International Airport and arrested five suspects linked to moving contraband out of the terminal.
- Investigators say couriers used transit itineraries, met contacts in washrooms or smoking zones, and relied on encrypted, vanishing messages with passcodes to coordinate handoffs.
- Officials identified an airport insider in Bengaluru who helped move gold past customs checks, and they are probing leads pointing to operators in neighbouring Bangladesh.
- Those held in Mumbai will be produced in court as DRI pursues the syndicate’s organisers across borders, with inquiries focused on the Nairobi route and other members still at large.