KOCHI: The Air Intelligence Unit, Air Customs, at the Cochin International Airport Ltd(CIAL) in Nedumbassery has managed to foil seven attempts by gold smugglers to bring in the yellow metal since Tuesday. A total of 2,084.7 gm of gold was seized by the sleuths in the last four days.
According to a release, gold worth Rs 31.54 lakh was seized from various passengers who had deplaned at the airport. In all the instances, the couriers were male passengers en route from Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok. The biggest seizure of 1,092 gm was effected from a passenger who flew in from Dubai. In one instance, the courier had resorted to cavity concealment with the gold recovered from the rectum. In five cases, body concealment was adopted while the remaining case pertained to misdeclaration of gold brought in from abroad.
During the 2017-2018 fiscal, the Customs Department seized 87 kg of gold in Ernakulam mainly from the Nedumbassery Airport. Gold worth Rs 26.97 crore and 254 cases were registered in this connection. Also, Rs 2.3 crore was collected by way of duty, Rs 19 lakh as fine and Rs 6.21 lakh as penalty for the seized gold.
As many 15,125 flights and 23,91, 493 passengers were checked and cleared. Similar has been case with the airports in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. In the last two months, 25 kg of gold was seized from the Calicut Airport, with 17 kg of gold netted in Thiruvananthapuram.