Nowadays, smugglers have gotten extra innovative and are finding new or rather bizarre ways to smuggle gold into the country, often hiding it in strange places or objects. However, despite all their planning, they still end up getting caught. One such instance surfaced at Chennai airport where a passenger had hidden gold in his slippers.

On Monday, 21-year-old Mohammed Hasan Ali hailing from Ramanathapuram, arrived from Dubai and was heading to the exit when his slippers came off. Wanting to help him, a Customs official at Chennai airport, picked up the latter’s slipper that had come off, only to find it was unusually heavy and had gold hidden inside.

“On examination it was noticed that the leather slippers had unusually broad straps having a specially designed cavity in which gold paste packets wrapped with red adhesive tape were concealed,” said Commissioner of Customs, Chennai International Airport said in a statement.

Four gold paste packets — two from each slipper and weighing 292 grams — were recovered. On extraction, 239 grams of 24K purity gold valued at Rs 12 lakh was recovered and seized under Customs Act.

In a similar case, Chennai Air Customs on Monday said gold, weighing 286 grams and valued at Rs 14.12 lakh, was seized from a person who had tried to smuggle it into the country, concealed in various items of personal care.

On opening his bag, five Tiger balm bottles, six boxes of Nivea Cream, three mini toy race cars and two nail cutters were found concealed inside among his personal effects. On examination, 11 round gold cut pieces were found concealed in balm and cream bottles and three gold pieces in bottom of toy cars.

(With IANS inputs)