Shagging the Smugglers

One of the favorite villains in Hindi movies is the smuggler king who, like Dr. No, runs his crooked empire from a posh suite crammed with electronic marvels, secret panels designed for quick getaways and strong rooms filled with gold and jewels. Invariably, he drinks the finest Scotch, drives a fast foreign car and has a passionate, sloe-eyed mistress. The Indian government has decided that the stereotype is a little too true to be good.

Bedeviled by galloping inflation and the threat of famine, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi recently extended the country's tough internal-security laws to cover smugglers, whose illegal trade has grown so large that it is threatening to damage the shaky Indian economy. So far, nearly 400 suspects have been rounded up in the government's anti-smuggling campaign. Under the act, they can be detained for two years without bail while their affairs are being investigated.

Officials estimate that some $300 million worth of contraband comes into India a year, most of it by ship from Hong Kong and the Persian Gulf. The smuggling is organized along Mafia-style lines by gang bosses who frequently live with all the opulence of their screen counterparts. Operating their own fleets of fast, radar-equipped dhows, motorboats and trucks, they bring in gold, jewels, liquor and such luxury items as TV sets and hi-fi equipment for the benefit of a small elite of conspicuous consumers. They spirit out silver, Hindi movies (frequently financed by smugglers), which are much admired in the Middle East and South Africa, and other Indian goods.

One of those detained was Haji Mastaan, 45, a former Bombay coolie who over the past 20 years has parlayed his 390-a-day wages into a $13 million empire and a reputation as the king of Indian smugglers. Mastaan likes to wear Western-style clothes topped with a white silk turban, gives generously to both Moslem mosques and Hindu temples, and by his own account has bought politicians of every party and persuasion. Though arrested several times before, until now he has beaten every rap that was ever brought against him, including a murder charge.

Human Conveyor Belt. Another underworld leader caught in the net was Sukar Narain Bakhia, 37, a 200-lb. illiterate who signs his documents with a thumbprint. He ruled the little town of Daman (formerly Portuguese Damao) south of Bombay like a personal fiefdom. By day Daman was just another sleepy seaside village with the blue Ara bian Sea lapping at its golden beaches.

At night it became a smuggler's paradise: signal lamps flickered, whistles sounded and high-power motorboats, guided by shadowy figures with walkie-talkies, roared in from the sea. When they touched shore, a human conveyor belt hustled the contraband out of the boats and into waiting trucks or rail cars.

The number of people overall who are involved in smuggling, down to ped dling the contraband, probably runs into the tens of thousands. But the government hopes to break the back of the racket by taking the gang bosses out of circulation. Said Prime Minister Gandhi last week: "Nobody, however big and influential, will be spared if he is found involved in smuggling or hoarding."

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