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India
Bhubaneswar: Officers of Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs seized gold worth Rs 20 lakh from a passenger at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar.
Acting on spot intelligence, the officers at the airport intercepted one passenger hailing from Thane, Maharashtra, who arrived from Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur in an AirAsia flight AK-31 Monday night.
On conducting a body search, four pieces of cuboid shaped yellow metal wrapped with black adhesives were recovered from his rectum, stated a press release issued by the Commissionerate of Customs.
According to reports, the gold bars seized from the passenger collectively weighed over 600 grams, and valued at Rs 19.12 lakhs. Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner of Customes, BPI Airport stated that investigation into the smuggling cases is in progress.
It is now suspected that a major gold smuggling racket is operating as gold bars worth around Rs 20 lakh were earlier seized by Customs officials at the airport from two passengers on November 17 last year.
Total 33 gold bars were seized from two passengers who arrived at the city airport from Kuala Lumpur in an AirAsia flight.
Similarly, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had detained a person at Khurda, who was travelling by train with nearly 2.5 kg gold worth about Rs 77 lakh in February.
