An ingenious attempt to smuggle gold hidden under a seat of an aircraft, was thwarted by officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Chennai airport on Wednesday. Two persons, including a Sri Lankan national, were arrested.
The officials seized four kilograms of gold, valued at Rs 1.21 crore.
Explaining the modus operandi of the smugglers, a DRI source said one person had brought the gold from Dubai to Chennai and kept it under the cushion cover of a seat. The location of the seat was then passed on to another person who took the same flight while it was operated in the domestic sector and removed the gold from under the seat.
A senior DRI officer said the arrested duo had already smuggled gold into the country twice. As the aircraft which came from an international sector was then operated in the domestic sector, it had become easy for the smugglers to carry out their operation.
The second smuggler boarded the aircraft before others. However, it was surprising that the cabin crew of the aircraft did not notice this activity, the source said.
