NEW YORK: In one of the biggest seizures of the year so far, customs officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport recovered gold worth Rs 1.99 crore from two rear toilets of a Jet Airways flight that arrived from Muscat.
According to a senior Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) official, around eight gold bars of 1kg each, valued at Rs 1.99 crore was hidden in the underside of the waste bin flapper of the flight.
We received information of gold being smuggled on the flight and intercepted Segu Naina, a passenger going to Kolkata,” said the official.
During interrogation, Naina confessed to carrying the gold bars and was produced before the designated court and remanded in AIU custody till June 19 .
Since January, the airport customs have seized around 250kg of gold at the Mumbai airport that involved airport staffers caught by customs officials in four different cases since February this year.
In the first case, a ground handling firm staff was arrested by the officials for acting as a carrier for gold worth Rs 1.5 crore.
A Jet Airways flight attendant was caught trying to smuggle gold and diamonds worth Rs 1.06 crore.
Two employees of a flight catering service were arrested as they were attempting a series of gold retrievals from four flights worth Rs 1.6 crore.
A senior executive from a ground handling firm was detained when he tried to receive gold worth Rs 1.03 crore from a passenger.
In April, officials recovered two cut pieces of gold bars worth Rs 24.68 lakh from the toilet of a Dubai-Mumbai flight and another 1.8kg of gold in the form of 16 gold bars from under a seat of a Doha-
