Gold worth over Rs 39 lakh seized at Chennai airport

Officials said on Monday that the customs department’s Air Intelligence Unit detained one person at the Chennai airport and seized 792 grammes of gold hidden in his two trolly bags.

Based on intelligence received on Sunday, Customs officials detained one passenger arriving from Dubai via AI-906. During an investigation of his checked luggage, four gold strips totaling 792 gms in weight and valued at Rs 39.75 lakh were discovered and seized in accordance with the Customs Act of 1962, according to the Customs division.

Customs officers at Chennai Airport also confiscated 2,234 kilos of gold worth Rs. 1.12 crore earlier in the day. While on February 19, customs agents in two different occasions seized more than 1900kg of gold.

In the first instance, officials detained two people who were coming from Dubai and Colombo and discovered 1,002 kilos of gold worth Rs 50.29 lakh during the course of the search.

In the second instance, the Customs department’s Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) impounded 900.25 grammes of gold at Kochi Airport, valued at Rs 43 lakhs.

At the green channel, a passenger coming from Sharjah to Kochi Airport was stopped. The official reported, “During the investigation of the aforementioned passenger, 4 capsules of gold in a compound form weighing a total of 900.25 grammes secreted within his body were recovered and seized.”

It was the seventh instance of smuggling from Kochi to be reported in the previous five days. Customs agents seized gold worth 20 lakh on February 17. In contrast, three days prior, in a different case A Kasargod native who was coming from Abu Dhabi was detained at the Kochi Airport carrying 857 grammes of gold valued at Rs 43 lakh.

As against the three separate cases in which gold worth Rs. 1.41 crore was confiscated in the two events reported on February 14.