Officials of Customs (preventive) Commissionerate, Amritsar on Sunday intercepted two passengers, aged 26 and 28 years, with 3.3324 kg gold evaluated at Rs1. 30 crores at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport here on Monday.
“One passenger hails from Tarn Taran, while the other is from Patiala. They used a unique method to try and smuggle the gold, which was in the form of wires in many items including toys,” said Dipak Kumar Gupta, commissioner of Custom, Amritsar.
He said both passengers had arrived from Dubai by an Air India flight. During the search of their suitcases, check-in baggage and backpack, the officers noticed metal wires, orangish-yellow in appearance concealed in his check-in baggage.
“Further check of the baggage revealed that gold in the form of silver wires were also concealed behind the metallic strip of the suitcases. More gold was found in the small transformer of toy-car having 20 pieces of small ‘E’ shaped silver finish plates. Gold was also found inside a small speaker,” he added.
As the checking continued, customs officers found six bracelets in the baggage and on suspicion, cut open the bracelets only to find 48 metallic objects, that appeared to be gold, from beneath the red and blue stones fitted in the bracelets. Both passengers used the same modus operandi, custom officials revealed.
{{/usCountry}}As the checking continued, customs officers found six bracelets in the baggage and on suspicion, cut open the bracelets only to find 48 metallic objects, that appeared to be gold, from beneath the red and blue stones fitted in the bracelets. Both passengers used the same modus operandi, custom officials revealed.
{{/usCountry}}The 24-carat gold seized from one passenger weighed approximately 1.66 kg evaluated at Rs64. 5 lakh, while gold seized from the co-passenger weighed approximately 1.67 kg evaluated at Rs65. 5lakh.
All items were seized under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, and investigation is underway, added Gupta.