Airport customs officials seize smuggled gold biscuits worth Rs 2 Crores

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): Indian Customs Air-Intelligence officials have foiled a major gold smuggling attempt, seizing Rs 2 crores worth of gold biscuits. The confiscated gold was recovered from a passenger who arrived from Singapore at the Chennai International Airport. Fairoz Khan, 24 who tried to smuggle six kilograms of gold by hiding them in baggage, is being interrogated by Customs officials.

Recently, Customs and CISF officials had seized gold biscuits worth Rs.26 crores found dumped in airport dustbin. The gold biscuits were found wrapped in plastic bags and dumped in the bin. The house keeping staff who noticed the parcel, had informed the customs officials.

In another incident, the Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs Department had arrested a passenger from Singapore for allegedly carrying gold worth Rs.15 lakhs hidden in adapters.

Also, customs had earlier nabbed 50 compact discs (CDs) plated with gold- each weighing 10 grams from an Indian passenger who arrived at the airport from Kuala Lumpur.

The smugglers are seen making use of every ounce of their creativity to sneak past the authorities.

The acts of smuggling gold into the country have escalated recently, following tight norms imposed on gold imports. Official sources indicate that around 1,000 to 3,000 kilograms of the precious metals illegally enter the country every month through air and sea routes.