Customs officials at the Kannur international airport seized 2.807 kg of gold from a passenger who arrived from Doha on Wednesday.
In a press release on Wednesday, Sumit Kumar, Commissioner of Customs, Kochi, said the gold was seized from a passenger, identified as Shabeeb Vattam Parmhil from Muriyanal, Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode district. He arrived at the airport by flight AI- IX774.
Acting on a tip-off, the Customs sleuths kept up the surveillance on the suspected passenger and nabbed him when he was trying to push himself through the green channel.
The gold in the form of cut pieces of biscuits were ingeniously concealed by stuffing in the hollow portion of an Air Impact Wrench, kept inside his check-in baggage, the release said. The seized gold is valued at ₹94,53,976.
The passenger has been arrested under the Customs Act. Further investigation is being carried out to unearth the links operating behind the smuggling.
This is the 24th case of gold seizure in the airport, which was commissioned on December 9. A total of 21 kg of smuggled gold valued at about ₹7 crore had been seized so far, the press release said.
Out of the 24 cases, 19 involving seizure of 17.44 kg, valued at ₹5.80 crore, had been made from April, 2019 onwards.
Air Customs officers of the Kannur airport tightened their anti-smuggling activities, it added.