Based on specific intelligence inputs about narcotics being smuggled from Thailand to Chennai, the Air Intelligence Unit officials of Customs intensified surveillance. The officials grew suspicious of a 26-year-old passenger from Kerala, who gave evasive answers when questioned. He was taken to the Customs office for a detailed examination.

The officials found nine concealed parcels hidden among packets of processed food items in his baggage. They found 6 kg of high-grade hydroponic ganja in the parcels, which has an estimated worth of Rs 6 crore in the international market. The passenger, revealed to be allegedly acting as a carrier for an international drug trafficking network, was arrested, and the contraband was seized.

In another incident on Tuesday, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) noticed an airport employee behaving suspiciously near the transit passengers' restroom in the arrivals section. The employee was assigned duty in the smoking area located in the departure security zone, but was found loitering in the arrivals area. Alerted by the CISF, Customs Air Intelligence officials questioned him and later conducted a personal search.

Officials recovered an oval-shaped parcel wrapped in black tape concealed inside his undergarments. The parcel contained 414 grams of 24-carat gold paste valued at Rs 53.18 lakh. The employee confessed that a transit passenger travelling from Dubai to Sri Lanka via Chennai had hidden the parcel inside a restroom water tank and instructed him to retrieve it and hand it over to a smuggling agent outside the airport.

Customs officials seized the gold and arrested the airport employee. The officers are trying to trace the transit passenger who departed for Sri Lanka on a connecting flight.