Madurai
Air Intelligence Unit of Customs Department on Saturday seized 555 grams of gold smuggled by a passenger from Tiruchi who arrived from Colombo at Madurai airport.
Intelligence sources said that the officials got suspicious about the movement of Mehaboob John (40) who arrived here by Sri Lankan Airlines flight. When the officials checked his possession, they found that he was carrying three marker pens and a ball point pen.
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Upon searching the pen, they found gold in the form of rods concealed inside the pens. The value of the smuggled 24-carat gold is ₹ 16.68 lakh.
This is the third major seizure of gold at Madurai airport in the last one week. The AIU officials, led by its Assistant Commissioner, had seized 400 gm of gold concealed in a wireless router and a remote control device on July 15 and 350 gm of gold powder concealed in clay material on July17.