Mangaluru: Gold smugglers luring unemployed Gulf returnees

Mangaluru: The recent spike in gold smuggling cases being detected at the international airport here has been found to be related to the increased number of jobless Indians returning from Arabian countries.

International gold smuggling gangs are reportedly using these vulnerable blue-collar workers willing to take the risk and earn easy money.

Since the beginning of the pandemic last year many Indian workers in these countries lost their jobs. The smugglers there take advantage of such people by paying them upto Rs 30,000 for illegally transporting gold.

Airport and Customs sources inform that many of these ‘mules’ do not know the consequences of such illegal activities as they are semi-literate and naive.

The mode of concealment changes from time to time, the sources add, whenever a mule is busted carrying one of the gold-concealed items.