Gold dust seized from Sri Lankan at Chennai airport
March 13, 2014 04:32 pm
Indian customs seized 1.5kg of gold dust from a Sri Lankan national who arrived in Chennai from Colombo on Thursday. Sources said R Thiagarajan smuggled gold dust in tea packets after mixing it with tea powder.
A customs official said the seizure was made based on a tip-off that gold was being smuggled from Colombo. Officials monitored passengers arriving from an Air India Express flight and stopped Thiagarajan on suspicion.
“He was carrying only a few branded tea packets made in Sri Lanka and gold was not found in his bags or on his body. So we checked the tea packets and found it contained gold dust,” said an airport official.
The passenger had travelled frequently between Colombo and Chennai and this raised suspicion, he added.
It is suspected that gold must have been smuggled into India in dust form earlier too as tea packets may not be scrutinized by officials because smugglers usually bring gold biscuits and raw gold thread hidden in the lining of bags. - TOI
A customs official said the seizure was made based on a tip-off that gold was being smuggled from Colombo. Officials monitored passengers arriving from an Air India Express flight and stopped Thiagarajan on suspicion.
“He was carrying only a few branded tea packets made in Sri Lanka and gold was not found in his bags or on his body. So we checked the tea packets and found it contained gold dust,” said an airport official.
The passenger had travelled frequently between Colombo and Chennai and this raised suspicion, he added.
It is suspected that gold must have been smuggled into India in dust form earlier too as tea packets may not be scrutinized by officials because smugglers usually bring gold biscuits and raw gold thread hidden in the lining of bags. - TOI
