23.6.15

Haul of 62 kg gold @Vizag Airport


It literally rained gold at the sleepy Visakhapatnam International Airport late on Sunday night.
In what is perhaps the biggest ever gold haul in the state and one of the largest in the country, around 62 kg of the yellow metal was confiscated by sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Chennai, at Vizag airport. Around 55 passengers carrying the gold--valued at around Rs 17 crore--have been detained by DRI for questioning.
According to sources, all the passengers hail from Tami Nadu and landed in Vizag on three flights--Air Asia, Malindo and Silk Air--from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore between 9  pm and 11 pm on Sun day . Taking advantage of the rush (the three international flights land in quick succession), the suspects were trying to evade customs but were intercepted when they were collecting their luggage. Most of the gold was concealed inside electronic goods such as LCD TV boxes, microwaves and DVD players.
Among the 55, many were frequent travellers and most of them were acting as couriers.
Customs department officials at the airport said the overall gold haul can increase further as the detainees were still being interrogated. All the arrested passengers were to be taken to Chennai for further interrogation on Tuesday .
Since international flights started landing in Vizag, gold smuggling has become a frequent affair with gold bars (biscuits) being concealed in the body and smuggled. This is the third time in June that the precious metal has been seized at Vizag airport. On June 2 and June 8, a total of 4.2 kg gold was seized. In the first instance, seven passengers arrived on the Air India flight from Dubai via Hyderabad carrying gold concealed inside their body . In the second, the carriers were two women passengers from Dubai on the Air India flight via Hyderabad. Excluding Monday's haul, 11.06 kg gold valued at Rs 3.06 crore has been seized so far this year.


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