MANGALURU: Sleuths of
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (
DRI) thwarted an attempt by a youth to smuggle gold into the country on Wednesday and recovered six tola gold bars from his possession.
"Sleuths kept a watch for one Umar Farook Kannadaguli (28), a resident of Manila, who arrived by Spicejet Flight SG-60 from Dubai to Mangaluru around 6.15pm, Vinayak Bhat, deputy director," DRI said on Thursday.
The sleuths mounted surveillance at Mangalore International Airport. On the arrival of the aircraft, they identified Umar at the exit of green channel. Umar was intercepted and escorted to customs arrival area and subjected him to thorough checking.
On checking his luggage, they seized gold bars of foreign origin concealed inside a multimedia speaker system.
Vinayak Bhat said the said gold pieces weighed 699 grams and were found to be of 24 Karat purity and their current market value was estimated to be around Rs 21.53 lakh.
The DRI officers later seized the gold under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. Stating that the sleuths arrested Umar Farook for attempting to smuggle gold tola bars, the official added that further investigation in to the case in under progress.
Representative Photo