Kerala: Customs seizes gold worth Rs 40 lakh at Kochi airport

Kochi (Kerala) [India], February 10 (ANI): The Customs department in Kerala seized 805.62 grams of gold worth Rs 40 lakh from a passenger at the Cochin International Airport on Friday.

The officials have identified the passenger as Rishad, a native of the Palakkad district in Kerala. According to an official statement from the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs department, the seized gold worth Rs 40 lakh was recovered from the passenger as he came from Abu Dhabi by flight and was intercepted at the green channel.

“On the basis of profiling done by the officers of Customs AIU batch, a pax coming from Abu Dhabi to Cochin International Airport by flight IX452 was intercepted at the green channel. During the examination of the said passenger, 04 capsules of gold in compound form totally weighing 805.62 grams concealed inside his body were recovered and seized,” the official statement said.

Further investigation is going on.

On Thursday, the officials seized 1062.89 grams of gold worth over Rs 54 lakhs in two instances from two female passengers at Kochi airport.

On the basis of profiling done by AIU officials, one female passenger was travelling from Italy via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight, while the other one was intercepted at green Chanel by AIU officers who arrived from Riyadh to Kochi on an Air India flight.

In another incident on February 8, the AIU at Kochi airport seized two crude gold chains weighing 499.90 grams worth Rs 26 lakh from the possession of a Thrissur native who had arrived here from Dubai.