Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
With Inputs from Media Release

Mangaluru, Oct 13: The officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mangaluru, on Friday October 13 arrested four passengers at Mangaluru International Airport for trying to smuggle 16 gold bars using a novel method.

Acting on credible intelligence that some international passengers arriving by Air India flight AI-814 from Dubai to Mangaluru at around 4.30 am would attempt to smuggle gold into the country, the officers of DRI carried out thorough checking of the passengers at the Mangaluru International Airport.

The DRI officials noticed that the four passengers were wearing heavy shoes which they were made to remove and thereupon it was found that they had pasted the gold bars under their soles with adhesive tapes and over it had worn thick socks in a regular fashion.

The said gold bars recovered from all four passengers weighed 1936.08 grams in total and were found to be of 24 karat purity and their current market value was placed at around 57.5 lac. The contraband gold was later seized by the officers of DRI under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

On interrogation the passengers admitted that they are regular in smuggling and as revealed from their passports they have been frequently flying from Dubai to India. They also revealed that this modus operandi of pasting gold biscuits under their sole was conceived for smuggling gold into the country as they knew that this method of concealment will largely go undetected by the normal customs check at airports.

Further investigation in the case is in progress. Identities of the accused have not been so far.