The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport saw separate operations by customs authorities result in the seizure of 61 kg of gold valued at 32 crore, making it the department’s greatest value seizure at an airport in a single day, an official said on Sunday.
According to the official, the seizures conducted on Friday resulted in the detention of at least seven travellers, including five males and two women.
He asserted that this was the largest single-day confiscation in the history of the Mumbai airport customs.
Four Indians returning from Tanzania were discovered carrying 1 kg gold bars in the first operation; the bars were hidden inside specially made belts with numerous pockets, the officer claimed.
According to him, officials discovered 53 kg of UAE-made gold bars worth 28.17 crore hidden inside the passengers’ torso-hugging belts. According to the authority, a Sudanese national at Doha Airport gave the travellers their belts during the transit period. He claimed a judge had taken the four travellers into jail and sentenced them to 14 days of judicial detention.
Similar to this, three travellers who had landed from Dubai had 8 kg of gold worth 3.88 crore seized by customs agents, he said.
He claimed that the group, which included two ladies, was carrying waxy gold dust.
The official claimed that the gold was cleverly hidden in the waistband of the travellers’ jeans. He added that the trio were arrested and remanded to judicial custody, and that one of the women was in her late 60s and using a wheelchair.
