KOCHI: The officials of Customs Air Intelligence unit at Cochin International Airport seized one kg of gold valued at Rs 29 lakh from a passenger, who had flown in from Dubai. Mohammed Shafi (27), a suspected carrier from Thamarassery in Kozhikode was arrested following the seizure.
Shafi had landed at the airport at 10.30pm on Wednesday on board Air India flight 1X434. On inspection, Customs sleuths found 30 gold bars weighing 991.700g hidden inside the transformer of a hand dryer and compressor nebulizer which were wrapped to avoid easy detection.
Customs officials said Shafi worked in the Labour Department in Dubai and that he had been working as a carrier for the gold smuggling racket for sometime now. He confessed to the officials that the gold was handed over to him by a Dubai national and that a man was to have contacted him as soon as he landed at the airport.
A case under Customs Act 1962 has been filed against Shafi. It was a team led by Customs Deputy Commissioner Biju Thomas that carried out the arrest and the interrogation. Assistant Commissioner Jayant P Narayanan, Superintendent M Shairaj, P C Ajith Kumar, K Madhu Kumar, Serin Joseph, P Gopinathan, K P Satheesan and Inspectors Satpal Meena, Sunil Kumar, K Raj Kumar, Abhishek Bajpai and Maharaja Singh were a part of the team.