Officials of the Customs Air Intelligence Unit seized a little over one kilogram of gold smuggled by two incoming passengers at the international airport on Tuesday.
Acting on intelligence received, the officials intercepted a passenger who arrived in Tiruchi from Sharjah, by an Air India Express flight, at the exit gate. While conducting a search on the passenger and interrogating him, officials found three packets of gold, in paste form, smuggled by the passenger and concealed in his rectum. On extraction, a gold ingot of 24 karat purity which weighed 745 grams and is valued at ₹36.49 lakh was recovered and seized. The officials also examined the checked-in luggage of another passenger who arrived from Dubai by an Air India Express flight. During the checks, officials found 66 gold pieces in different shapes of 24 karat purity concealed in a Wi-Fi router, projection lamp and an electric kettle. The smuggled gold pieces were seized, and their value was put at ₹15.33 lakhs. In another instance, officials seized foreign currency of 10,000 USD equivalent to Indian currency of ₹7.37 lakhs from a Sharjah-bound passenger in the departure area. Further investigations are on, a Customs press release said.
