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Gold and booty:
Goa opens smuggling museum
The long beaches and rocky inlets of western India have been a haven
for contraband for centuries, with smugglers sneaking their goods into
the country via the Arabian Sea.
In the past, gold was the commodity of choice along with opium.
Illegal narcotics have dominated in recent years, after Goa became a key
stopping-off point on the drug-fuelled hippie trail in the 1960s and
1970s.
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Smuggling devices on display in a cabinet at the Indian Customs
and Central Excise Museum in Goa. The new museum has opened to
tell the story of India’s smuggling history, displaying the
unusual items uncovered by keen-eyed customs officials and the
elaborate lengths smugglers have gone to to conceal their
illegal activities. AFP |
Now a new museum has opened to tell the story of India’s smuggling
history, displaying the unusual items uncovered by keen-eyed customs
officials and the elaborate lengths smugglers went to in an effort to
conceal their activities.
The Indian Customs and Central Excise Museum, created at a reported
cost of about 600,000 dollars, is housed in a heritage building on the
banks of the river Mandovi in the Goa state capital Panaji.
The building, painted in indigo blue after the dye traded in
Portuguese colonial times, is thought to have been built in 1600 and
served as the headquarters for customs operations from 1834 to the turn
of the 21st century.
Lillian Fernandes, the officer in charge of the museum, said
collecting the exhibits has been a labour of love, with workers scanning
through huge lists of seized goods from across India and then battling
through red tape.
“We have sourced and seized artifacts from all customs and central
excise warehouses and the other museums across the country,” she said.
“Once the inventories were made, we deputed officials to scour all
the warehouses and bring them back here.
“In the case of antiques, we had to take the necessary permissions
from the Indian museum authorities before putting them on display.”
But all the effort has been worth it, she said.
On display are contraband goods such as antiques and religious idols
seized on India’s border with Nepal or from around the country’s
coastline.
Some are from the days of the lucrative animal trade, including a
large shark jaw and huge tusks and molars from elephants.
Others include gold nuggets stashed under the seat of an airline
toilet or in the hollowed-out heel of a shoe both methods employed by
smugglers to avoid paying hefty import duties.
A special section dedicated to such innovative methods of concealment
is contained in a gallery called the “Battle of Wits”.
AFP |
