Chennai: Smugglers have been adopting novel means to sneak in gold into the country, custom officials said here today after three persons were arrested with 12 kg of gold bars hidden in specially-made pockets and elastic belts.
In the biggest haul of the month, custom officials today seized twelve kilogrammes of gold bars worth Rs 3.79 crore from three persons, all natives of Kerala, at the Chennai airport here.
This month over 13 kg of gold have been recovered from fliers entering India from different countries, they said. Commissioner of Customs, Airport and Air Cargo Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said the three arrested persons arrived here from Dubai by two different flights.
“One of them concealed the gold in specially made pockets in his jeans while the other two hid the gold in specially made black coloured elastic belts tied to their waists,” Agarwal said in a statement.
“Gold smugglers have started to adopt novel modus operandi in recent times to smuggle gold into India. Interesting cases detected during the month of August (so far) suggest that there is a premium in gold smuggling, which is on the rise,” he said.
Emphasising on the need to intensify surveillance to curb smuggling, Aggarwal said gold - in the form of bars, biscuits, coins and jewels - to the tune of over Rs five crore has been seized in the month of August.
On August 4, a passenger from Dubai was found in possession of two gold bars worth Rs 55.64 lakh which he had concealed in his underwear while two passengers from Riyadh on August 18 were found with 404.7 gm of gold jewellery hidden inside talcum powder tins.
Other cases included concealing gold in cassette tape recorder and secret pockets inside the pants, Aggarwal said. A total of eight persons have been arrested in these cases.
