Three held with gold, foreign currency at Mangaluru airport

Mangaluru: Officers of the Customs Department at the Mangaluru International Airport detected two cases of gold smuggling and one case of smuggling of foreign currency and held three persons in this connection. Foreign currency worth Rs 18.10 lac and 549.98 grams of gold worth Rs 19.14 lac were seized from the possession of the arrested.

In the first case, officials intercepted a Dubai-bound passenger and found him to be in possesion of foreign currencies – USD, EURO, Omani Riyals and Kuwaiti Dinar – worth Rs 18.10 lac hidden within his luggage bag.

In the second case, authorities, acting on credible information, intercepted an inbound passenger and subjected him to intensive physical frisking. A search revealed that the passenger, who had arrived in Air India flight from Dubai was in possession of 232.62 gram of 24-carat gold worth Rs 7.68 lac. The gold had been hidden in a round shaped plate coated with silver and place within a cooker.

Another passenger, who arrived from Dubai was also subjected to a search and was found to be in possession 317.36 grams of 24 Carat gold in powder form hidden in his rectum.