India, Sept. 12 -- Indian investigating authorities claim that they have unearthed a massive gold smuggling racket, which traverses a little-known cross-border route that encompasses three countries, and several mountain paths. Foreign-marked gold from China enters Tibet, which China claims to own, and then to India's Ladakh, and involves Chinese nationals, Tibetan sherpas, and Indian smugglers. The officials claim that in one of the cases that was busted recently, more than 1,000 kg of the yellow metal was physically transported on mules over the mountains by a multinational gang. The gold was later sold in markets like Delhi and other north Indian cities.

One can figure out the economics of smuggling via human mules, from Dubai to Delh...