CHENNAI: Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) sleuths of the Customs department foiled attempts to smuggle 2.186-kg gold worth Rs 72 lakh in different incidents at the airport.
The sleuths on Saturday intercepted four passengers - Kajamytheen (31) of Ramanathapuram, Jahir Hussain (49) of Pudukkottai, Naseer (30) of Pudukkottai and Sahubar Sathik (19) of Ramanathapuram - who had arrived from Colombo by Air India Flight AI 274.
During a search, gold in rubbery material concealed in their rectum was recovered. On extraction by heat, gold weighing 734 gm and valued at `24.21 lakh was recovered. In another incident, Inayatulla (32) of Bhatkal who arrived from Dubai by an Emirates flight was found to have concealed gold weighing 599 gm and worth `19.76 lakh in the form of a rubbery spread in his rectum.
In yet another case, the AIU officers intercepted Ashraf (61) of Thiruvananthapuram, a wheel-chair user, who had arrived from Dubai by an Emirates flight. He was found to be carrying seven gold bars concealed in his underwear and one gold cut bit weighing 37 gm in his shirt pocket. A total of 852.5-gm gold worth `28.12 lakh was recovered.