CHENNAI: Customs officials at Chennai airport have seized 6.2 kg gold, worth Rs 2.83 crore, over the week. Most of the seizures were from passengers arriving from Sri Lanka. Gold was also seized from some passengers who traveled from Singapore, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Women were mostly used as carriers in these cases to sneak in gold, said customs officials.
On Friday, based on a tip-off, customs officials searched an aircraft that arrived from Dhaka and found a 995 gram of gold bar in the lavatory. On Thursday, customs officials received information that gold was hidden in the toilet at the immigration hall. They recovered a plastic packet containing gold in paste form. The gold on extraction yielded 642 grams. It is valued at Rs 29.92 lakh. The same was recovered and seized.
On Wednesday, three female passengers arriving from Colombo were intercepted, and 1.736 kg of gold hidden in rectums was seized from them. The seized gold was valued at Rs 78.46 lakh. On Tuesday, 1.2 kg gold worth Rs 55.59 lakh was seized from male and female passengers who arrived from Sri Lanka and Singapore and from an aircraft that arrived from Colombo. On Monday, customs officials seized 1.622 kg of gold from passengers who arrived
