Rich haul of gold seized at Mangaluru Airport in January

Mangaluru, Feb 4: Officers of Customs at Mangalore International Airport detected several cases of smuggling of contraband and seized 1.16-kgs of gold, foreign currency equivalent to Rs 3.47 lakh and 129 cartons of foreign cigarettes, all in January.

In the first case detected by officers of air intelligence unit, which was formed last month, five numbers of 10 tola gold bars, weighing 583.250 grams and valued over Rs 15.45 lakh was recovered. These were ingeniously concealed in central core portion of steel type hot and cold water tap mixers brought in a carton box by a passenger who arrived from Dubai.

Further in another seizure, airport Customs officers seized 581 grams of gold valued over Rs 15.33 lakh found concealed in the form of washers fixed to the lining of two stroller bags carried by a passenger, who arrived from Dubai.

In another detection, foreign currency amounting to 18500 UAE Dirham equivalent to Rs 3,46,875 was seized from possession of a passenger departing to Dubai, as the passenger was attempted to smuggle it out of India without valid documents. Besides, 129 cartons of foreign cigarettes valued about Rs 2.04 lakh was recovered and seized in five cases as they were devoid of statutory pictorial warning.

The officers have been profiling passengers who are frequent travellers with short visits to thwart efforts to smuggle contraband. Considering the frequent detections being made, smugglers are changing their modes of concealment and adopting novel modus operandi. However, the officers are thwarting such efforts by adopting the profiling techniques coupled with filed intelligence, M Subramaniyam, customs commissioner stated in a communique here on Thursday.