Woman flyer held with 1.28 kg gold at Bengaluru airport

BENGALURU: A woman flyer from Dubai was caught at the Bengaluru airport in her attempt to smuggle nearly 1.28 kilograms of gold inside a belt she had worn to manage her back pain. The gold seized by the Air Intelligence Unit of the Airport Customs on Monday has a market value of around Rs 59 lakh.

According to a customs official, the 33-year-old passenger arrived at Kempegowda International Airport by an Emirates flight (EK 564) at 8.50 am. "The passenger was nabbed due to profiling and frisking. She had concealed the gold in paste form inside plastic covers inside her back pain belt."

The paste with the covers weighed 1.75 kg. "After removing the plastic material, the extracted gold bar (patti) weighed 1277.05 grams, which is totally valued at Rs.58,94,862. Her travel details revealed that she left the Anna International airport, Chennai on March 5," he added.

There has been a spurt in the smuggling of gold from Gulf nations in the last three months. The previous big seizure was on February 28 when a flyer from Dubai was caught from the same flight in his attempt to smuggle over 1 kg of gold in paste form in his underwear.

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