CHENNAI: The Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs department foiled bids to smuggle 3.4kg gold worth `1.12 crore at Chennai Airport and arrested two persons in this regard. On Thursday night, working on a tip-off that gold is being smuggled in Etihad Flight EY270 arriving from Abu Dhabi, AIU officials rummaged the flight.
Two bundles were found concealed under the cushion of one of the seats. On opening the bundles, two gold bars of one kg each, wrapped in black tape, were recovered. The gold assayer certified the bars having foreign markings of 24K purity valued at Rs 66 lakh.
In a separate incident on Friday, two Indian female passengers, Mumtaz, 39, and Shaista Khanum, 45, both from Delhi, who had arrived from Bangkok by an Indigo flight, were intercepted by AIU officers and a personal search was carried out. Both were found to be carrying gold in form of cylindrical rods weighing 699 grams each, which were concealed in their rectum. A total of 1.4 kg gold worth `46 lakh, was recovered from them. Both passengers were arrested. Further investigations are on.