CHENNAI: Customs officials at Chennai international airport foiled four smuggling bids, including one of exotic monkeys brought in from Thailand in the last two days, an official release said
The officials seized an Agile Gibbon and Eastern Grey Gibbon in the checked-in bag of an Indian male passenger who had arrived from Thailand on the Thai Airways flight TG 337 in the late hours of Monday. The animals were sent back to Thailand and the passenger was arrested. Over the past three days, customs officials also seized 707 gm of gold worth Rs 65.1 lakh in three separate cases.
The smuggler had travelled on the Dubai-Dhaka-Kolkata-Chennai route on Monday and was apprehended in the domestic terminal with 409 gm of gold worth Rs 37.78 lakh concealed in his rectum. In two other cases, the carriers arrived from Singapore and Dubai and had concealed gold inside a cylindrical rod with the checked-in luggage.