1.2 kg gold seized at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport

Customs officials of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) apprehended three persons including two women while they were trying to smuggle 1.236 kg of gold at at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad on Friday .

In the first case, AIU detectives intercepted a 35-year-old woman when she arrived from US via Abu Dhabi in an Etihad flight (EY 274) carrying eight gold kadas weighing 342 gm. The value of the gold was `9.98 lakh. She wore some of the kadas and concealed the rest in her handbag.

In another case, AIU detectives intercepted a couple who arrived from Dubai via Abu Dhabi in a Jet Airways flight (9W 549). While the husband carried two gold chains weighing 387 gm, the wife wore four kadas weighing 507 gm.The total value of the gold seized from the couple was



`26.1 lakh. According to AIU detec tives, the gold carried by the three accused was of 24 karat purity and it was procured from unknown persons operating from Abu Dhabi.

“The accused have been smuggling in gold for personal use. They are not working for any international gang,“ a customs official said. According to customs officials, the quantity of the yellow metal smuggled in for personal use is very less when compared to what organised gangs send through carriers.

This year AIU detectives intercepted about 12 accused trying to smuggle in gold custom shaped in the form of buttons and foils which would fit in items like gas regulators and the walls of corrugated boxes. Officials also seized gold concealed behind an LED TV printed circuit boards.