Customs officials at the Anna International Airport foiled three attempts to smuggle gold on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
According to officials, based on specific intelligence that gold was being smuggled into India from Singapore, customs officers carried out a search operation on board the Indigo flight 6E 54 from Singapore.
During the search, they found a red pouch kept in the life jacket below a seat. Subsequently, a passenger, Askar Ali, 32, holding an Indian passport was intercepted at the exit gate of the arrival hall.
On questioning, he confessed to have kept the pouch below the seat. Eight gold bars weighing a total of 800 gm were found concealed in two rectangular packets wrapped in black adhesive tape.
On Sunday, based on information provided by the Indigo airlines staff, a total of 288 gm of gold valued at ₹8.6 lakh in the form of bars and cut bits were discovered on Indigo airlines flight 6E519 that had arrived from Dubai.
The gold was concealed in a chewing gum packet and kept behind the arm bar of the window seat. In another case detected, 353 gm of gold valued around ₹10.6 lakh was seized from Krishnamoorthy Sudhakar, 25, who arrived from Singapore by Scoot airlines flight TR 502.