3.3 kg of gold seized at RGIA

About 3,300 grams of gold of foreign origin was seized by customs officials of Air Intelligence Unit at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad in three different cases last week.

In the first case, on a tip off from a source that some contraband goods were likely to be removed from flight no EK-528, which arrived from Dubai on May 3, under the guise of garbage, the officials with the help of ground staff collected all the disposable bags of the aircraft and scanned them.

In them they found one packet wrapped with red adhesive tape which contained five pieces of gold bars weighing 615.25 grams valued at ₹19.65 lakh in international market.

In another case, the officials noticed an off-duty ground handling staff throwing away a packet in isolated area under aero bridge near parking bay and nabbed him.

The officials recovered two packets wrapped in adhesive tape consisting 14 gold bars weighing 1,632 grams valued at ₹52.13 lakh which was smuggled in a flight on May 3.

Meanwhile, 1,099 grams of gold was seized from a woman passenger who arrived from Dubai in Emirates Airlines flight EK 524 on May 4.

The custom officials found thin gold sheets which were packed inside toy boxes. The SOT of Shamshabad zone apprehended six other persons who were waiting for the woman outside the airport.