Gold, mobile phones worth lakhs seized at 2 international airports

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Kochi: Customs sleuths in two international airports in Kerala have seized mobile phones and gold worth lakhs of rupees from passengers arriving from abroad. Four passengers have been detained on Saturday night for questioning in connection with the seizures effected, Customs officials said.

Sumit Kumar, the Customs Commissioner said Customs (Preventive) officials at the Kozhikode International Airport detected two cases of four gold biscuits each concealed in headlamps of emergency lamps, from carriers coming from Dubai. The seized 930 grams gold at the airport is valued at approximately Rs 30 lakh.

Two passengers in Kozhikode have been detained for questioning, Kumar stated. Officials of the Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs at the Cochin International Airport have seized 16 mobile phones and accessories valued at Rs 3,56,300 from a passenger coming from China via Kuala Lumpur. Another seizure of 125.82 gm gold jewellery was also affected from a passenger coming from Dubai by an Air India flight, Kumar said.

In another case, the Hyderabad police busted an international gold smuggling racket and seized 6.46 kg of gold from the possession of 14 passengers at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The police said that the seized gold is worth Rs 2.17 crore and it was seized from the passengers who arrived in Hyderabad from Jeddah by Saudi Airlines flight SV-744. "The operation was jointly carried out by the Commissioner's Task Force, South Zone Team and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)," said Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar.

With inputs from PTI

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