Hyderabad, Jul 4 (IANS) The Hyderabad police on Wednesday claimed to have unearthed an international gold smuggling racket with the seizure of about 6.46 kg gold from the possession of 14 passengers at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here.

Police said gold worth about Rs 2.17 crore was seized from the passengers who arrived here from Jeddah by Saudi Airlines flight SV-744 early Wednesday.

According to Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, the operation was jointly carried out by the Commissioner's Task Force, South Zone Team and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

He said they acted on an information provided by a private person from the old city of Hyderabad and made the recovery.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Hyderabad has registered a case and taken up further investigations.

The police chief told reporters that 14 persons were being questioned. He said they had no previous crime record in the city, but the police were verifying the records of other agencies.

He did not rule out names of more people cropping up during the investigation.

The police commissioner did not reveal the details about the passengers, but appealed to people not to carry anybody's luggage.

The police chief appealed to the common public and air passengers not to get tempted by such smuggling incentives.

He said as per the policy of DRI, the informant will get a percentage of recovery as the reward.