Gold smuggling bid foiled at MIA; two arrested

Bajpe: The customs officials at Mangaluru International Airport arrested two passengers for attempting to smuggle gold and seized a total of 971 grams of 24 carat gold from the accused on Saturday.

The passengers had arrived to the airport from Dubai. The two accused are from Kasaragod and Kumble respectively and had arrived on two separate flights.

The accused had attempted to smuggle the precious metal by concealing within their rectum in the form of paste. It is learnt that they were attempting to smuggle for the first time. 652 grams of gold worth Rs 22.82 lakh was seized from the passenger hailing from Kumble. 319.059 grams of gold worth Rs 11.17 lakh was seized from the passenger hailing from Kasaragod.

It may be noted that the customs sleuths had seized 963 grams of gold worth Rs 34.18 lakh from a passenger attempting to smuggle it into the country on July 24^th.

All the accused have been produced in the court and have been remanded to judicial custody.