The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs at Chennai airport detected six cases of gold smuggling in the past few days and recovered ornaments weighing 3 kg, worth over ₹90 lakh.
On Sunday morning, Cheriya Parambath Ansar, 26, who arrived from Dubai by Emirates Airways flight no. EK 544, was intercepted on suspicion. When his checked-in baggage was examined, the officers found gold foils of 24 carat purity weighing 829 g worth ₹25 lakh. They were concealed between the layers of a magnetic dart board, photo frame and cardboard sheets. The passenger was arrested.
On the same day, two women — Ummal Bajria, 69, and Halima Nachiya, 47, who arrived from Dubai were found to have concealed ornaments worth ₹28 lakhsunder their burkha.
Similarly, Sivaiah Kokkanti, 44, who arrived from Kuwait via Bahrain was intercepted, and one gold kada and one gold cut bit weighing 333.8 g worth ₹10 lakh were seized.
Last Friday, the officers intercepted Barakathnisa Shamsudeen, 37, who came from Bangkok by Air Asia Airlines Flight No. FD 153 and found ornaments weighing 379 g worth ₹11.4 lakh under her burkha.
Last Thursday, Byrozkhan Sulaiman, 41, who arrived from Bangkok was intercepted and on examination of his hand baggage, round press buttons of readymade garments were found. The officers cut opened the buttons and 258 white-coloured metal rings were found in them. When a government-approved gold appraiser removed the coating, he recovered 535 g of gold, valued at ₹16 lakh. Since the passenger had one previous offence and the cumulative value crossed the threshold limit, the passenger was arrested under th Custom Act, 1962.
