Customs seizes Rs two crore gold from air passengers in two days

Gold worth about Rs two crorehas been seized from air passengers here in the last twodays, including from a woman who hid the precious metal inpaste form in a bar of chocolate, the Customs said onThursday.

A total of 3.72 kg of gold, valued at Rs 1.97 crore,has been recovered from 16 people in the last two days byits Air Intelligence Unit, a Customs release here said.

On Thursday, based on intelligence, officialsintercepted a 25-year old woman who arrived from Dubai andfound a 'big' chocolate concealed in her person.

''On cut opening the wrapper, a plastic packetcontaining 660 grams of gold paste was recovered. Onextraction 546 grams of gold valued at Rs 28.7 lakh wasrecovered and seized under Customs Act,'' the release said,adding, she was arrested.

On Wednesday, officials recovered gold from a totalof 15 air passengers who had arrived from different MiddleEast destinations.

Most of them hid the gold in their rectum, therelease said, adding, further investigation was on.PTI CORR SASSPTI PTI