Customs seizes gold worth Rs 1.5 crore at the Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Customs officials seized gold worth over Rs.1.5 crore in two separate incidents in the Chennai airport on Tuesday.

Based on a tip-off that gold is likely to be smuggled from Malaysia, Thailand, and Srilanka the Customs officicials in the Chennai airport formed a special team and were monitoring all the passengers arriving at the Chennai airport.

The officials on suspicion intercepted Mohamed Henifa (32) of Ramanathapuram and Mohamed Ashiq (38) of Chennai who arrived from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. In the meantime, the customs also detained a group of 11 passengers who arrived from Srilanka. During the personal search, they found gold in paste form concealed inside their clothes, pockets and rectum.

The customs seized 2.256 kg of gold from the 13 passengers which were valued at Rs 1.04 crore. The customs detained the 12 passengers and one of them was arrested for further inquiry.

In another incident, the customs officials seized gold worth Rs 50.51 lakhs from a passenger who arrived from Srilanka. The customs who were checking the passengers who arrived from Srilanka at midnight intercepted a 37-year-old man on suspicion of carrying gold.

Customs during a personal search found he had concealed gold inside his clothes and the same was recovered and seized. The gold was weighing about 1.09 kg worth Rs 50.51 lakh.

The passenger was arrested and further investigation is on.