Talking about hotspots, it said that smuggling remained concentrated in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and West Bengal, serving as entry points or redistribution hubs due to their strategic location | Photo Credit: REUTERS
According to the report, released on Thursday, DRI seized 1,073 kg of gold, having a market value of approximately ₹785 crore. “Nearly half of the total seizures were made during the period prior to import duty reduction by the government in July 2024, with the highest quantity of seizures being observed in April 2024, it said. Duty was lowered to 6 per in July last year from 15 per cent in July 2022.
Further, it said that policy shifts, from the restrictive Gold Control era to post-1990s liberalisation, were influenced by both legal imports and smuggling patterns. With import duties rising from 2 per cent in 2012 to 15 per cent by 2022, incentives for illicit inflows increased. “Although the duty reduction from 15 per cent to 6 per cent in July 2024 was aimed at aligning domestic prices with global rates, smuggling continued throughout FY24-25,” it said. Further, syndicates exploited sophisticated concealment, insider collusion, and diverse air, land, and sea routes, taking advantage of porous borders, access to high-security airport zones, and operational vulnerabilities.
Key locations
Talking about hotspots, it said that smuggling remained concentrated in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and West Bengal, serving as entry points or redistribution hubs due to their strategic location, more number of flights, and transit routes. “Ladakh emerged as a new corridor, with its remote LAC border and limited security presence,” it said. North-eastern States—Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram—continued to be key routes via porous borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Talking about air routes, the report said that Mumbai emerged as the main hotspot for gold smuggling through airports, far surpassing all other locations in both the quantity of gold seized and the number of cases detected. Significant seizures were also reported at Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Kozhikode airports. Meanwhile, “seizures at airports such as Kochi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Surat indicate the presence of widespread, though relatively fragmented, smuggling activity beyond the primary hubs,” it said.
Gender profile
On the gender profile of gold smuggling carriers, the report said that the majority of individuals apprehended were male. However, the presence of women, making up one-tenth of the persons apprehended, “highlights a growing trend of female involvement, possibly due to perceptions of lower suspicion during checks,” it said. The domicile profile of gold smuggling carriers in FY 2024-25 indicates that the overwhelming majority were Indian nationals, which highlights the dominance of domestic carriers in gold smuggling. “Carriers from Kenya and Iran contributed modestly, with isolated cases involving carriers from Thailand, Turkey, Afghanistan, Oman, the UAE, and the USA,” it said.
Published on December 4, 2025
