The Bhutanese Leading the way.
With the investigation completed, the case of the gold smuggling involving seven non-nationals has been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on March 6.
On February 22, four non-nationals were arrested by the customs officials at the Paro International Airport. Two of them had arrived in the country via Druk Air while the other two came through Bhutan Airlines.
Suspecting their odd body movement, a body frisking was carried out on the non-nationals and gold biscuits were found hidden inside their under garments.
A total of eight gold biscuits was seized which weighed a kilogram each.
At the same time, another non-national who had come to receive the four suspects, was also arrested, and on questioning, it was revealed that there were two more involved in the smuggling.
Later, the two non-national suspects were arrested from one of the hotel rooms in Thimphu. But no gold were recovered from them since they had already sent it to India.
It was not known to whom it was sent to and if they were paid to bring in the gold from Bangkok by another non-national. They were playing the
role of a carrier while one of them was responsible to book a room and arrange transportation.
Paro police said that the two non-nationals who were arrested from the hotel room in the capital had flown in on February 21and had manage to sneak in two gold biscuits, which was later sent to India.
Bhutan was used as a transits route to reach the gold biscuits to India by the suspects.
The receiver who had come to receive the four non-nationals had arrived in Bhutan on February 18 and was staying in one of the hotel in Bondey (Paro).
The suspects have confessed to police that the man who had asked them to carry the gold biscuits was also a non-national and they were all known to each other.
It is believed that it was their first-time arrival to Bhutan according to the passport record.
Almost all of them are gem stone businessmen and were paid to carry the gold biscuits. They come from Bangalore, India.
The man who had come to receive the four suspects owns a travel agent in Bangalore.
It is still not known to the police as to where the gold biscuits were sent in India and to whom. Even the suspects were not aware of the such transaction.
Chencho Dema/ Thimphu
