Chennai: Customs officials seized gold, laptops and cigarettes from three passengers, besides euros from two people holding French passports, totally valued at Rs 53.2 lakh, on Friday night and Saturday morning at the Anna International airport here.
A release from the Office of the Commissioner of Customs said the officers due to constant vigil, detected three cases of gold smuggling and two cases of foreign currency.
The officials intercepted two passengers, Philippe (51) and Segar (61), both holding French passports and having OCI card, who were bound for Dubai via Emirates flight, at the security hold area of the departure terminal after they completed their immigration and customs clearances, on suspicion of carrying foreign currency.
On examination of their hand baggage, the officials found 24,540 Euros equivalent to Rs 18.64 lakh were seized the same under the provisions of Customs Act.
On Friday night, Three passengers–Nasar Deen (55), Bahurudeen (25) and Mohd Najibulla (25)–all from Madurai arrived here from Dubai by Emirates flights and from Colombo via Indigo flight.
They were intercepted at the exit on suspicion of carrying gold. On persistent questioning, all of them accepted to have concealed gold in the form of rubbery spread in rectum and gold cut bits on their person.
On extraction totally three gold ingots totally weighing 843 gms and valued at Rs 30.38 lakh was seized along with six gold cut bits weighing 131 gms and valued at Rs.4.72 lakh from them.
In all, 974 gms of gold valued at Rs 3510 lakh were seized under the Customs Act 1962. Apart from gold, 2,640 packets of Gudang garam cigarettes valued at Rs.26,400 and four old and used laptops valued at Rs.20,000 were also recovered and the same were seized. Totally, the value of seized goods is Rs 53.2 Lakh. Further investigation is under progress.