CHENNAI: Customs officials foiled bids to smuggle gold, beauty enhancement drugs, iPhones, Apple watches and Intel processors, worth Rs 33.7 lakh, through Chennai airport on Saturday. A department release said Murali Krishnaswamy, 59, of Chennai, who had arrived from Bangkok by Thai Air flight was intercepted on suspicion of carrying gold or cosmetic drugs.
On examination of his baggage, different types of beauty enhancement drugs were found. These include five boxes of Placenta Luchini fresh cell therapy injections, 50 boxes of Supreme Gluta white tablets, 28 boxes of Glutex 5GS micro-cellular ultra whitening kit and 24 boxes of mixing white platinum antioxidant DNA repair and 10 boxes of Chronol 500 mg Disulfiram tablets, all valued at Rs 5 lakh. They were seized as the passenger could not produce invoice and certificate issued by Assistant Drug Controller.
In another case, Imran Khan, 23, of Chennai, who arrived by Air India flight from Dubai, was intercepted and on examination of his checked-in baggage, eight Apple watches, 620 Intel i3 processors, three Samsung gear watches and four iPhone XS, all valued at Rs 13.15 lakh were found concealed.
In yet another case, Mohamed Ibrahim, 33, who arrived from Singapore by Fly Scoot flight was intercepted at exit on suspicion of carrying gold. On persistent questioning, he accepted to have concealed gold in the form of rubbery spread inside his rectum. On extraction through heating process, gold weighing 404 grams, valued Rs 15.61 lakh, was recovered.
Three involved
The valuables were seized from three persons who arrived at the airport from three different countries on Saturday.