India, Aug. 5 -- What began as an offer of a free ticket home from Dubai, was actually a sophisticated gold smuggling operation, but throw in a good old double-cross, spurred on by greed, and your Bollywood plot is complete.

Lucknow police on Tuesday arrested two alleged members of an interstate syndicate accused of recruiting Indians in Gulf countries, using them as couriers to smuggle gold concealed inside body cavities and then taking the contraband off them after they landed in India.

A third man - the courier, Mahboob Alam - has been detained for now and is being quizzed. Police and customs are using him to reach other members of the larger network.

"The arrested men have been identified as Deepak Verma, a native of Balrampur, cur...