For the second day in a row, Dubai flyer smuggles in gold-coated screws and rods at Bengaluru Airport

BENGALURU: For the second consecutive day, gold was smuggled into Bengaluru using rods and screws by a flyer from Dubai. The Air Intelligence Unit of the Airport Customs seized nearly 150.5 grams of gold valued at over Rs 5 lakh from a native of Chikkamagaluru at the Kempegowda International Airport on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old passenger had landed in Bengaluru by an Air India Express flight (AI 1246) from Dubai at 3.45 pm.  

A senior Customs official said the gold was smuggled using various items brought by the passenger in both his check-in luggage and hand baggage. "The rods were coated with many substances including gold while 23 screws were coated with gold and mercury and concealed in trolley bags. Two gold finger rings were concealed by coating them using copper and silver while a small quantity was concealed in a metallic strip hidden in a laptop," he said. 

On Tuesday (March 2), the Customs had seized a total of 360.13 grams of gold valued at Rs 17.14 lakh, from another flyer coming from Dubai to KIA. "The passenger had 42 screws and 4 rods which were coated with many metals including gold which were concealed in the beading of the check-in baggage," another official said. The flyer had reached the city by an Emirates flight (EK 564) around 12.30 pm. "Scanning of the baggage helped in identifying the concealed gold," he added.

His travel details revealed that he had left from the Mumbai airport to Dubai on February 18.