Chennai: Officials of the Customs Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) have seized 1.19 kg gold worth Rs 59.85 lakh at the Anna International airport on Thursday.
A release from the Commissioner of Customs said, based on intelligence, gold was likely to be smuggled from Dubai by concealing in aircraft, officials conducted checks on an Indigo flight.
On rummaging of the aircraft, a specially designed cloth pouch was found concealed in hollow pipe portion of one of the seats.
On opening it, six gold cut bits of 24 K purity, weighing one kg and valued at Rs 50 lakh were recovered and seized as unclaimed under Customs Act.
In another case, officials intercepted a passenger, Vivek Manokaran (30) of Vellore, who was wearing sandals on suspicion that he might be concealing gold in them as a few days back a passenger was caught with gold in his slippers.
Vivek arrived from Dubai by Fly Dubai Flight. On examination of his sandals, small gold cut bits were found wrapped with cello tape and attached to the inside of straps.
Four gold cut bits (two from each sandal) of 24K purity, weighing 199 gm valued at Rs 9.85 lakh, were recovered and seized under Customs Act.
Total 1.19 kg gold valued at Rs 59.85 lakh was recovered and seized under the Customs Act. Further investigation is under progress.