CHENNAI: Over 440 kg of smuggled gold worth Rs 248 crore was seized from 1,010 passengers at the Chennai airport in the 2023-2024 period, according to officials. This figure is Rs 100 crore more than the last year. In 2022-2023, Customs and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials had seized only 291 kg of smuggled gold, valued at Rs 137 crore.
Meanwhile, the number of smuggled drugs, wildlife, and currencies has also increased in this period, when compared to the previous year.
With regard to narcotics, officials have seized cocaine, heroin, and meth valued at Rs 334 crores, in 50 cases. In the previous year, they seized 42.68 kgs of drugs valued at 192 crores at the Chennai airport.
The seizure of foreign currencies too has seen a spike with officials seizing notes valued at at Rs 19.44 crore in 82 cases while in the previous year, only 10.47 crore worth of currency notes were seized in 71 cases.
Officials recovered 150 smuggled animals in 18 cases at the airport. They were all later deported. In the previous year, 60 animals were seized in 13 cases.