KOCHI: Customs officers on Tuesday foiled two back-to-back gold smuggling attempts at the Cochin International Airport.
In both cases, culprits tried to smuggle the yellow metal by concealing it inside their rectum. One of the arrested is a Kozhikode native who arrived here from Kuala Lumpur. The officers seized 349.14 g of gold which was concealed inside his rectum.
A Malappuram native who arrived here from Dubai was the other person to be nabbed. The officers seized 349.9 g of gold which was concealed inside his rectum.
The total gold seized – around 700 g – has been valued at approximately Rs 20 lakh.
The seizure was effected by additional commissioner (Customs) Roy Varghese and assistant commissioner (Customs) Sivaraman as per the directions of Principal Commissioner (Customs) Pullela Nageswara Rao. The office of Customs Air Intelligence at CIAL had on Monday thwarted four back-to-back attempts to smuggle gold through the airport here and seized a total of around 1.283 kg of gold.