Bhubaneswar: Officers of the Air Intelligence Unit of Customs Department on Wednesday seized 690.550 grams of gold from a passenger who arrived at the Biju Patnaik International Airport in an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur.
According to sources, the seized gold has a purity of 99.90 per cent and is estimated to be worth Rs 21.89 lakh.
The passenger belongs to Chennai. The officers searched his personal baggage and found four pieces of gold strips of foreign origin. They were concealed in the aluminium linings of the trolley bags.
Further investigation into the case is on.
According to sources, the custom officers noticed the suspicious behaviour of the duo and intercepted them. The two were allegedly smuggling the gold to Chennai from Kuala Lumpur.
In a similar case on August 31, officials of the Customs Department seized 340 grams of gold from Biju Patnaik International Airport and detained two persons in this connection.
The market value of the seized gold is estimated to be worth Rs 10.56 lakh.
Likewise, on July 21, the Air Intelligence Unit officials had seized smuggled gold worth Rs nine lakh at Biju Patnaik International Airport here and detained a person in this connection.
