Mumbai: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) apprehended a Mangaluru-bound passenger at the city airport on Tuesday with seven gold bars weighing close to 1.064 kg and worth approximately ₹30 lakh. The contraband was concealed in a pair of sandals he was wearing.
K.N. Tripathi, DIG (CISF, Mumbai Airport), said, “The passenger, Mohammed Moosa, was travelling to Mangaluru from Mumbai by an early-morning Jet Airways flight. He was intercepted by a CISF officer who found something suspicious in his footwear during mandatory frisking in the terminal area.” Mr. Moosa was handed over to the Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs department for further investigation, as per procedure.
Mr. Tripathi added that the accused had brought the gold from Dammam in Saudi Arabia. “He was walking in an awkward manner. During frisking, the Door Frame Metal Detector emitted an audio-visual signal indicating the presence of metal. A scan revealed the presence of seven gold bars concealed in his footwear.”
This is the third such incident in the past few weeks. On April 16, a passenger travelling from Riyadh to Kozhikode, Kerala was arrested at Mumbai Airport’s T2 for trying to smuggle 960 grams of gold worth ₹27.33 lakh. The accused, Shajeer K, had concealed the gold in his trouser belt.
Prashant Kumar, the CISF officer on duty, noticed an unusual bulge in the passenger’s belt and asked him to take it off. “On checking, we found a yellow colour material that appeared to be gold powder blended with highly concentrated gel, wrapped in a plastic sheet,” a CISF officer said.
