Sri Lankan smuggler takes 3 days to pass 12 gold pieces he swallowed before flying to Mumbai

MUMBAI CITY NEWS It took four attempts for the doctor to recover gold pieces for which they used bowel cleaning procedure said police official

For three days, doctors at the civic-run Cooper hospital slogged to help a Sri Lankan national eject 12 gold pieces he had swallowed to evade suspicion by Customs officials. Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Faheem, 55, was arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) on Friday morning.

Cooper hospital staff displays the gold pieces Mohamed Faheem passed on Monday. (HT)

“In the past, we have come across cases in which drugs were swallowed for smuggling. But in this case, the man swallowed metal pieces,” said a high-ranking AIU official.

Faheem, who came from Columbo, was busted after he was asked to walk through a door frame metal detector (DFMD). “The DFMD detected presence of metal inside his body. Initially, the passenger voluntarily ejected six pieces of gold. However, DFMD beeped when he walked through it again,” the official said.

Faheem was taken to Cooper hospital after he confessed to swallowing 18 gold pieces before flying to Mumbai. “It took four attempts for the doctor to recover 12 gold pieces, for which they used bowel cleaning procedure,” the official said.

The officials recovered 505 grams of gold worth Rs14.90 lakh. Faheem was let off as the value of the gold was less than Rs20 lakh.