Recently on Sunday and Monday, police arrested people smuggling gold from abroad to India.
19-year-old Smuggler
On Monday, police arrested a 19-year-old girl who was carrying gold worth Rs 1 crore, concealed in her innerwear. The girl had arrived from Dubai on an Air India Express flight. The police didn’t find anything inside her luggage but during physical examination, three packets of the gold compound were found skillfully concealed in her innerwear.
She received a payment of Rs.60,000 for being a carrier. She was introduced to this smuggling racket by her friend. Further interrogation is being continued to identify other people involved in the gold smuggling racket.
At Cochin International Airport
On Sunday, at Cochin International Airport custom department recovered gold worth Rs.40 lakh. The gold was recovered from a private flight’s washroom. It was concealed inside a packet. According to the customs department, the gold weighs 815 grams and was found on a flight that flew down from Dubai to Kerala. The officials suspect that the passenger has abandoned the gold out of fear.
On the same day, a male passenger was intercepted by the Customs Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at the Cochin International Airport only. He was caught carrying gold valued over Rs.44 lakhs. The gold was concealed inside his body. Officials confirmed that based on the profiling done by the Kochi Customs AIU batch, a male passenger was caught at the green channel at Cochin International Airport. He was coming from Dubai and was carrying the gold.
From the respective passenger, four capsules of gold, weighing around 1068 grams in the compound form worth Rs. 44.14 lakhs were recovered by the officials during the examination. All this gold was concealed inside his body.
Trichy Airport, Tamil Nadu
A day before this Customs Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) stopped a man and seized two gold biscuits, which were valued at over Rs.8 lakhs. The biscuits were concealed inside a tin at Trichy Airport in Tamil Nadu. Those gold biscuits had a purity of 24 carats and weighed 147.5 grams, confirmed the customs department.
“Seizure of two biscuit-shaped gold pieces (100 47.5 grams) of 24-carat purity, totally weighing 147.5 grams, valued at ₹8,06,530 lakhs from a male passenger who arrived at Trichy Airport from Singapore by Air India Flight on December 24,” told the department of customs.
In November, customs officials of Trichy Airport seized one piece of gold which weighed around 145 grams. This gold piece was recovered from a female passenger at the Tiruchirappalli Airport. The gold piece had a purity of 24 carats and was valued at Rs. 7,74,590.
The yellow metal was extracted by the officials from 169 grams of paste-like materials which were concealed in the rectum of a female passenger.
