Indian Airport Customs snatch gold concealed in CPU, cooking pan

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): The Mumbai Airport Customs officers on Wednesday grabbed huge quantities of smuggled gold bars from passengers. The gold was found concealed in computer CPU and cooking pan. The total value of seized gold exceeded Rs 33 lakhs.

The Customs had recently beefed up security measures at the airport in an attempt to curb rising incidents of gold smuggling. As per the new system, airline staff keeps all checked baggage in the conveyor belt. The belt passes through the most modern in-line screening machine that is capable of detecting gold. Upon detection of gold, the officials put cross marks on suspected bags. The passengers who collect these bags are intercepted when they pass through the green channel.

In the first incident, a passenger who arrived from Dubai was intercepted by the Customs official after the baggage-scanner machine warned of gold content inside his checked baggage. On examination, 10 gold bars each weighing 116 grams were recovered from inside the transformer of the CPU. According to Customs, the seized gold was worth nearly Rs 29 lakhs.

In the second incident during the day, another passenger from Doha was intercepted by Customs officers while walking out of the airport. The screening machine at the exit gate alarmed of gold content inside the bag. The Customs officials who examined the hand bag, found gold bars concealed in the handle of an aluminum cooking pan. Gold weighing nearly 230 grams valued at Rs 5.8 lakhs were recovered.

Gold smuggling in Indian airports has witnessed sudden spurt in 2015 with Mumbai International Airport alone reporting gold seizures worth nearly Rs 3 crore during the initial ten days of the New Year.