NEW DELHI: The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here is witnessing a gold rush in the last week of 2015. The Customs officials at the airport have seized over 25 kg of gold worth about Rs.6 crore in the past one week from passengers trying to smuggle in the precious metal.
“More than 25 kg of gold has been seized by the Air Customs at the airport in the last week of 2015,” said IGIA Additional Commissioner of Customs Vinayak Azaad.
“This includes more than 10 kg gold in raw form from two Kazakh nationals who had arrived from Almaty, Kazakhstan. They were carrying over 5 kg gold each on their person, concealed under their clothing,” Mr. Azaad added.
“In another instance, 3 kg gold was seized from two passengers coming from Dubai in the form of thin gold plates and 1 kg gold was seized from a passenger coming from Hong Kong. All these passengers have been arrested under relevant provisions of the Customs Act.”
Apart from these instances, the Customs officials seized more than 10 kg gold from passengers coming from Dubai, Bahrain, Doha and Hong Kong.
In a show of ingenuity, some smugglers tried to conceal the gold in their baggage by bringing it in the form of kadas , white polished rods, metal pieces, etc.
“Customs officers have made a lot of effort to crackdown on the ingenious ways in which gold is being concealed to avoid detection,” Mr. Azaad said.
Apart from gold, the Department recently cracked down on the commercial smuggling and seized GPS trackers, LED lights, etc.
