Customs officials at Kempegowda International Airport on Sunday arrested two people who were trying to smuggle 1.32 kg of gold paste concealed in their footwear. “It’s a novel idea devised by smugglers to evade detection after we increased vigilance,” said an official.
On Sunday, alert officials observed a passenger — later identified as Puthaan Veedu Samseer Ali — who had arrived from Dubai exchanging slippers with another passenger, Salman Faris.
Faris was flying out of Bengaluru to Goa on the same carrier that had arrived from Dubai.
Realising that something was not quite right, officials took a closer look at the slippers and found that gold paste was concealed within its flaps and insoles. The total value of the gold paste was ₹41.3 lakh.
The duo have been taken into custody and a probe is being conducted to ascertain if they are a part of a larger gold smuggling racket.
Other incidents
In another incident, which took place on Saturday, customs officials caught Moideen Kunju Mohammed Shafi, 47, at KIAL. He had flown in from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in an international carrier and was wearing a kada and gold chain weighing 568.6 grams, worth ₹17.9 lakh, concealed under the sleeves and collar.
In another case, two passengers, Vinod Kumar Parasmal Jain, 44, and Pinto Kumar, 38, were arrested for concealing coating gold bangles coated with silver under the sleeves of their shirts.
Officials recovered 2.15 kg of gold worth ₹69.75 lakh in these three cases.