Nagpur: Customs and Air Intelligence authorities on Tuesday seized foreign gold worth more than Rs 61 lakh concealed in two trolley bags at the Nagpur International Airport and arrested two passengers who arrived here from Doha, officials said.
An official release said acting on a specific intelligence, teams under the guidance of Nagpur Commissioner of Customs Avinash Thete prevented a major attempt of foreign gold smuggling at the city airport at around 4.30 am.
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Personnel of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) and the Air Customs Unit (ACU) were involved in the operation. The smuggled gold was found concealed in two trolley bags in the form of silver coloured thick wires to avoid detection. The gold in wire form was coated with a silver coloured substance which was not easy to detect on regular baggage screening machine, said the release.
It said 384.100 grams and 475.230 grams of 24k gold, the value of which was Rs 61.25 lakh, was seized from two passengers who were travelling from Doha to Nagpur by Qatar Airways.
Personnel of AIU and ACU intercepted the passengers on the basis of intelligence and placed them under arrest, said the release, adding further investigation was underway.
Air Intelligence Unit and Air Customs Unit of Nagpur Customs intercepted the said passengers at Nagpur International Airport, on the basis of intelligence developed by Anjum Tadvi, Assistant Commissioner of AIU and supported by Charanjit Singh, Assistant Commissioner, Prakash B Kapse, Superintendent, Rajesh Khapre, Superintendent, Manish Pandharpurkar, Superintendent, Nita Nalge, Superintendent, Vishal Bhopte, Inspector, Priyanka Meena, Inspector and Shailendra Yadav, Hawaldar of Customs.
