Chennai Customs seizes rare monkeys, gold worth Rs. 66 lakh in major smuggling busts

CHENNAI: The Customs officials at Chennai International Airport seized two rare species of monkeys that were illegally smuggled from Thailand on Wednesday.

As they were checking the passengers who arrived from Bangkok on Wednesday morning, the officers intercepted a male passenger from Chennai who had travelled to Thailand on a tourist visa. On searching his checked-in luggage, officials discovered two live monkeys, an Agile Gibbon and an Eastern Grey Gibbon, hidden inside.

When questioned, the passenger claimed he intended to keep the animals as pets. However, as he did not present proper import documentation and also due to concerns about potential disease transmission, the officers deported the monkeys back to Thailand on Wednesday night. The passenger was arrested under the Wildlife Protection Act and has been remanded in judicial custody.

In a separate incident, Customs officers at the domestic terminal intercepted a passenger who arrived from Dubai via Dhaka and Kolkata. Acting on intelligence reports about gold smuggling, officers conducted a personal search and found the man, aged in his mid-thirties, had concealed 409 grams of gold in cylindrical form inside his rectum. The gold, worth Rs 38 lakh, was seized, and the passenger was arrested.

In a third case, officers inspecting luggage from a passenger who arrived from Singapore on Wednesday midnight found 150 grams of gold worth Rs 14 lakh hidden inside the gear shaft of his suitcase. The passenger was taken into custody.

In yet another incident early Wednesday morning, officials recovered another 150 grams of gold, also worth Rs 14 lakh, hidden inside the checked-in luggage of a passenger arriving from Dubai. This passenger was also arrested, and further investigations are under way.