NEW DELHI: Passenger traffic at the international terminal has seen a 20% increase in the last two months. At the domestic terminal, almost 24 % increase has been recorded.
An manual iron box in the luggage is enough to raise a few eyebrows, but what Customs officials found inside the metal box made their eyes glitter. Two kilogrammes of gold in a plate form formed the inner base of the manual iron box that was seized on Tuesday night.
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has seen a sudden spurt in gold smuggling cases with customs officials seizing gold worth Rs 2.08 crore in the past two days alone.The gold metal plate inside the iron box worth Rs 51.51 lakh was seized from a Srilankan national, Mohammed Hilmy, who had arrived from Madagascar via Mauritius, said Customs officials.We have lists from airlines so coming across a Sri Lankan national travelling from Madagascar via Mauritius did not add up. So on suspicion, we intercepted him and found the iron box in his check-in luggage,” said a Customs official.
This week saw smuggling in various forms, with smugglers dropping gold in toilet dustbins, concealing gold in articles and smugglers trying gold and possessing more than one passport, sending Customs officials into a tizzy.
