Gold worth Rs 7.58 crore seized from passengers at Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Customs sleuths at Chennai airport on Monday arrested 10 flyers who flew down from Dubai and Abu Dhabi hiding gold as ornaments and gold paste in their attires and physique.
Based on the intelligence provided by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the air intelligence unit of the customs department tightened the vigil and secured 10 flyers, including women, who arrived here on different flights.
Customs officers found 10 gold chains of 24 karat purity weighing 4.645 kg in total hidden in the socks and undergarments of some of them.
Gold in paste form was also seized which yielded two gold ingots weighing about 2 kg. In total, Rs 4.07 crore worth gold was seized one set of flyers.
In the second seizure, gold in paste form concealed in rectums was seized which yielded 5.6 kg, worth Rs 3.52 crore.
All flyers were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Customs officials suspect that the same gang might have engaged the flyers to smuggle gold into the country. Further investigations were on.