The Department of Revenue Investigation has been examining six packages suspected to have contained smuggled gold after the seizure of one-and-a-half quintals of metals including gold last week.

On Sunday, the investigation team formed by the department opened a few metal packs to examine if they contained smuggled gold. “Based on examination of two to three packs with open eyes, we failed to confirm the presence of gold in them,” said Nawaraj Adhikari, information officer at the DRI. “We plan to put them under an X-ray machine on Monday.”

Adhikari said two large machines could not be opened on Sunday and they would be opened with the help of mechanics on Monday.

A few of the six metal packs belong to Ready Trade Private Limited and the rest to another company, according to Nawa Raj Dhungana, director general of the department.

On July 18, gold over a quintal was seized concealed inside motorcycle brake shoes as the consignment was taken away in a taxi after getting customs clearances from the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Part of the gold seized during the raid by the DRI belonged to the Ready Trade. Of the additional six metal packs seized later, some are related to the Ready Trade, according to DRI.

In the past two months, the company has been found to have imported various metallic goods including brake shoes, shavers, and mechanical motors that weighed nearly two tonnes, Kantipur, the Post’s sister publication, reported on Sunday.

They were brought from Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates—two major hubs of gold trade. Officials said they had suspected that gold might have been concealed in those goods too but an investigation would confirm that.

The latest seizure of smuggled gold suggests that the Tribhuvan International Airport continues to be the gateway for large-scale smuggling of gold. A 33 kg gold consignment busted in 2017 remains untraced ever since.

The gross weight of the consignment seized on July 18 was 155kg, including the motorcycle brake shoes and electric shavers, according to officials at the Mint division of the Nepal Rastra Bank, which has been entrusted with examining the metal.

The DRI has so far arrested 16 people in connection with the smuggling.

On Sunday, the DRI arrested six people including TIA customs officer Santosh Chanda, customs worker Kumar Dhakal and X-Ray technician Saroj Shrestha, according to the Kantipur report. Customs agents Rukmila Subba, Sudarsan Gautam and Yadav Parajuli were also arrested.

As the X-ray machine deployed at the airport customs reportedly failed to detect the metal, authorities suspect the smugglers colluded with customs officials to get the smuggled gold pass undetected.

“It is highly unusual that the customs office failed to detect such a large quantity of gold,” Punya Bikram Khadka, director at the Department of Customs, told the Post earlier.

He said that the department was also investigating the lapses in customs clearance by suspending two of its officials involved in the process.