NEW YORK: The Air Intelligence Unit attached to Dabolim International Airport seized around 7.705 kilos of gold from a passenger at Dabolim airport on Thursday morning.
According to the Joint Commissioner of Goa Customs, the custom officers received a tip from their intelligence unit that an international passenger was carrying a large amount of gold. While carrying out searches, the officials noticed that one Sajid Ahmed Ekkier (44), a resident of Bhatkal, Karnataka, had concealed over 7 kilos of gold in a laptop bag, which he had checked in as hand luggage. Ekkier had arrived by Qatar Airways flight QR-522 from Doha at 5.05 am.
“In the baggage screening machine, we noticed that the charger compartment of the laptop bag had some items that were wrapped with brown tape. After thoroughly checking the bag, we found “49 ten-gram and two one-kilogram bars weighing a total of 7,705 grams” valued at Rs 2.15 crores,” said a Dabolim custom official.
He added, “The gold was handed over to the passenger by one Salim Bhai at Dera Dubai to smuggle it to Goa. However, the attempt was futile.”
The operation was carried out by the Air Intelligence Goa Unit led by Assistant Commissioner (AIU) Shekhar Jain, Superintendent of customs S K Singh and V G Naik, who are investigation officers, besides other officers.
Sources at Dabolim airport revealed that custom officers were strictly monitoring the movement of international passengers as well as airport staff.
“We were surprised to see that the accused brought such a huge quantity of gold in laptop bag so openly. It makes us feel that if he had time, he would have come in contact with local staff and may have succeeded in smuggling, as it was reported in the past,” said a custom officer.
Meanwhile, customs officials have booked a case under section 135 of the Customs Act and are further investigating the matter.
