How Chennai YouTuber operating souvenir shop smuggled 267 kg gold in two months

After busting a gold smuggling racket in Chennai last month, customs officials have discovered that city-based YouTuber Sabir Ali was allegedly involved in employing and training seven men to carry gold hidden in their rectums.

Ali was arrested for operating a souvenir shop named AirHub at Chennai airport that allegedly served as a front for an international gold smuggling cartel. The entire operation was busted on June 29-30, leading to the arrest of 29-year-old Ali and his seven employees.

A probe into their modus operandi revealed that the men hired for the job were paid a monthly salary of Rs 15,000, with an additional Rs 5,000 for every “ball” of gold they smuggled. It is suspected that the cartel contacted Ali through his YouTube channel “shoppingboyz”.

Each consignment comprised nearly 300 grams of gold paste or powder packed inside silicone balls, as per a report in The Times of India. The smugglers would receive the consignment in the transit lounge from “carriers” flying in from abroad, conceal the gold in their rectums, and deliver it to customers waiting outside the airport, said the report.

They reportedly smuggled 267 kg of gold worth Rs 167 crore over a couple of months, with customs officers estimating Ali earned about Rs 2.5 crore during this period. One of the alleged mules confessed to making 80 such trips in two months, officers said.

These men were trained to practice holding the gold during squats to avoid detection by customs. “The training begins 10 days before they are assigned the job. With practice, it becomes easier for them to hold gold in their rectum for up to an hour, even if we make them squat,” a customs officer said.

Officers discovered that the men initially started with one ball before progressing to three, weighing nearly 1 kg. The breakthrough came on June 29 when a suspect was caught with three consignments, confirmed by an X-ray.