New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has estimated that a gold smuggling syndicate, busted by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) last year, smuggled around 1,064 kg of the precious metal worth Rs 800 crore.
Between 2023 and 2024, the gold was sent from across the border by a Chinese national and was then moved to dealers in Delhi on the instructions of Indian mastermind Tendu Tashhi, an ED spokesperson said Tuesday.
The ED raided five locations of dealers and jewellers in Delhi who allegedly received the gold smuggled in from China. The agency also carried out searches at premises linked to Tashhi in Ladakh, under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
The ITBP busted the first two operatives just 1 km from the international border in eastern Ladakh. The two men, Tenzin Targy and Tsering Chambay were caught by border troops with 108 gold bars worth more than Rs 80 crore on them. They were handed over to the Customs department, which arrested them.
The case was then taken over by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, which so far has arrested 10 people under the stringent Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA).
The Act allows agencies such as the DRI to detain individuals involved in activities detrimental to the country’s foreign exchange and economic security, such as smuggling goods or engaging in illegal foreign currency transactions.
“The ED investigation revealed that the smuggled foreign origin gold was being sent illicitly by one Bhu-Chum-Chum, a Chinese national, to an individual named Tendu Tashi in India via the Indo-China Border (Tibet Sector). Tendu Tashi is the mastermind and responsible for arranging the whole logistics for transportation of the smuggled foreign origin gold bars from Ladakh to Delhi for its further disposal,” an ED spokesperson said Tuesday.
The agency further found that one Tibet resident identified as Tenzin Khandap allegedly worked as an initial recipient of the gold sent by Bhu-Chum-Chum and facilitated the movement of the metal up to the Indo-China border. In the border region, these consignments of gold were allegedly handed over to Indian porters.
For these gold consignments, Bhu-Chum-Chum was paid in cryptocurrency by the members of the syndicate, the agency spokesman further said.
“On the instructions of Tendu Tashi, one Tenzin Samphel (uncle of Tenzin Khandap) recruited two porters to collect the 108 kg foreign origin gold from China,” the agency spokesman said with reference to the consignment carried by Tenzin Targy and Tsering Chamba before the ITBP troops intercepted them.
“ED investigation further revealed that Tendu Tashi has successfully smuggled 1,064 kg gold worth Rs 800 crore into India from China border with the help of other members of his gold smuggling syndicate during 2023 and 2024. The smuggled gold was delivered to individuals in Delhi who in turn sold it to various jewellers/dealers in Delhi,” the spokesperson further said.