7 women ‘kurivis’ nabbed on a single day

Chennai: Customs officials seized on Thursday, gold worth Rs 1 crore from seven women, including two from Sri Lanka, who arrived in four international flights at the Chennai airport. With the latest seizure, officials believe that various smuggling rackets have started using more female carriers to dodge the suspicious eyes of enforcers. This is the first time that customs officials stumbled upon as many as seven women operating as kuruvis (carriers) in a single day.

One of the women, a resident of Ashok Nagar in the city, who traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai on Thursday night, was found carrying 1.4 kg gold, worth over Rs 42 lakh in her inner garments. Two Sri Lankan women who arrived from Singapore on an Air India flight, were found carrying gold in their rectum. Two other women who arrived from Singapore in Tiger Airlines were also found trying to smuggle gold in a similar fashion.

“A woman who came from Singapore was hiding a gold biscuit in her mobile phone. She kept the gold biscuit in the space reserved for a battery inside the mobile phone instrument. Another woman passenger who traveled in the same flight was carrying 3 gold biscuits in her hand luggage after painting these in black,” a customs official said. There is an increase in gold smuggling this year. During 2013, the value of seized gold was Rs 13 crore. But this year, so far the value of gold seized at the airport has already crossed Rs 40 crore.

Following recent transfers and strengthening of customs’ air intelligence unit, customs officials at Chennai airport seem to be scanning for every gram of yellow metal being smuggled in. The recent decision by the customs unit to scan every passenger for smuggled gold seems to have forced the cartels to use women askuruvis.