BENGALURU: Bengaluru Airport Customs officials on Tuesday foiled an attempt made by a 22-year-old male passenger to smuggle nearly 3 kg of gold concealed inside two electric iron boxes in his check-in luggage, said a source. The gold, valued at Rs 1.62 crore, was being smuggled from Dubai on an Emirates flight.
This is the first time that such a recovery has been made on the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger flight, which made its debut in Bengaluru last month. The flight, EK-568, reached Kempegowda International Airport at 2.30 am.
“The gold was being concealed in the soleplate (the steel portion used for pressing clothes) of the boxes. It was melted and the paste was impressed on it so that it could be well concealed inside the plate,” added the source. Elaborating on how it was detected, another source said that when the bag was passed through the X-ray scanner by Customs officials, a mild patch of black was revealed.
“Based on suspicion, it was passed through a sophisticated scanner which confirmed that something was concealed inside. The iron boxes were broken and the gold was recovered,” the source added.