In yet another gold smuggling attempt at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) Airport in the city, customs officials on Sunday morning nabbed a couple arriving from Jeddah and seized nearly 1 kg of gold wires worth around ₹94 lakh from them.
The IndiGo flight from Jeddah landed at 9:30 am on Sunday, and customs officials became suspicious of the couple due to their nervous behaviour and inconsistent responses during questioning. A detailed inspection of their luggage revealed that the gold was cleverly hidden within the borders of their trolley bags. The wires, weighing 526.5 grams and 544 grams, were identified as pure 24-carat gold, valued at ₹46.16 lakh and ₹47.69 lakh, respectively. The couple, originally hailing from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, has been nabbed, and further legal action is under process as per customs laws.
The arrest of this couple follows the arrest of three other individuals earlier on Friday and Saturday. In a joint operation by the customs department and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), passengers arriving from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah were stopped based on specific intelligence inputs. In one case, a man arrived from Dubai on a SpiceJet flight, and officials became suspicious when they found unusually heavy jars in a mixer box. After the inspection, it was found that the smugglers had lined the jars with gold paste concealed under a metal covering. The gold weighed around 1 kg and was valued at ₹98.96 lakh.
In another case, the other two passengers, arriving from Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, had hidden gold capsules worth ₹82 lakh inside their body cavities