Gujarat man held at Varanasi airport with ‘smuggled gold in paste form’

2 min readLucknowJul 28, 2026 01:46 PM IST The paste-form gold is extracted into bullion or bar by those involved in gold smuggling, the official said. (Representative image)The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a Gujarat man at the Varanasi airport for allegedly carrying smuggled gold in paste form in a flight on Sunday. A DRI official said they had received an input about a man travelling in a Varanasi-bound flight from Sharjah with smuggled gold.As the flight landed at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi, a team of officials carried out a search on the passenger and found gold in paste/compound form kept under his seat, he added. The officials took the passenger in custody and found a total of 491.290 grams (net) of 24 carat foreign-origin gold value