Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday seized around six kilograms of gold that was being smuggled in an Air India Express flight operating in the Singapore–Tiruchi–Chennai sector.
Acting on specific intelligence input, a DRI team from Chennai boarded the Air India Express aircraft IX- 681 upon arrival at Tiruchi in the afternoon.
Passengers under suspicion on board were at first checked. Thereafter, the team rummaged the flight and found about 5 kg of gold in various shapes abandoned in the aircraft’s bathroom, airport sources said.
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The DRI team with the confiscated gold went by the flight to Chennai to carry out further investigations, they added.
Gold in smaller quantities were reportedly found concealed in the rectum of four international passengers bound for Chennai from Singapore after the flight landed at Chennai airport.
Gold was also apparently found concealed in a soap box carried by an international passenger travelling by the flight.
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It is suspected that the smuggled gold concealed in the bathroom was apparently to be carried by passengers travelling from Tiruchi to Chennai in the same flight.
The sources said domestic passengers travelling by international flight are not subjected to checks by Customs authorities upon arrival.
There have been numerous instances in the recent past of gold smuggling taking place in the Air India Express flight operating via Tiruchi to Singapore.
Customs officials at the Tiruchi international airport had made several seizures of gold from domestic passengers who arrived by Air India Express flight from Chennai.
In the last eight months, Customs officials caught 40 domestic passengers and seized smuggled gold weighing over eight kg estimated at over Rs. 2.3 crore.
Engaging domestic passengers as carriers to smuggle gold was a novel modus operandi on the part of the smugglers, the sources said.
Gold in smaller quantities were also seized from four international passengers