CHENNAI: Air Intelligence Unit sleuths of the Customs department foiled attempts to smuggle 1.36-kg gold worth `44.4 lakh in separate incidents at the Chennai airport. Following some intelligence tip-off, Abdul Rahim, 46, of Chennai, who arrived from Dubai by Emirates Airline Flight EK 544 here on Tuesday, was intercepted and during a personal search, a gold chain weighing 60 grams was found concealed in his trouser pocket and two bundles of gold in rubbery material were found concealed in his rectum.
After extraction, 130-gram gold was recovered. A total of 190-gram gold worth `6.19 lakh was recovered from him.In another incident, Mohamed Iqbal, 42, of Pudukkottai, who arrived from Colombo by Sri Lankan Airlines Flightm, was intercepted and during a personal search, two bundles of gold in rubbery material were found concealed in his rectum. On extraction 202-gram gold worth `6.58 lakh was recovered.
In the third incident, Riyas Ahamed, 27, of Chennai, who had come from Doha via Muscat by Oman Air flight, was intercepted and 1,400-gram gold was found in rubbery material concealed in a specially stitched black cotton belt which was tied over his underwear. On extraction by heat treatment, 972-gram gold worth `31.66 lakh was recovered, a Customs department release said. Further investigations are on.