Bhubaneswar: After a brief lull, the gold smugglers have again become active at the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA). The sleuths of Customs department have arrested two gold smugglers again, Wednesday night. The two passengers were held with smuggled gold weighing around 612 grams which was valued at Rs 22 lakhs.
According to sources, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the department intercepted the accused persons who hail from Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The smugglers, who arrived at the BPIA Wednesday night, had boarded an Air Asia flight (Number AK-37) from Kuala Lumpur.
Later, during checking of bags and body scanning, the sleuths found seven capsule shaped packs covered with black tapes. The gold was kept as paste inside the gelatin plastic capsules.
The seized gold weighed 612.85 grams that was valued at Rs 22 lakh.
Earlier, one passenger, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, was held by the Air Intelligence Wing of the department while trying to smuggle foreign origin gold into the country through BPIA, Tuesday night. He had boarded an Air Asia flight from Bangkok and reached Bhubaneswar with contraband gold weighing around 150 grams worth Rs 5.33 lakh.
The sleuths target especially those people who hail from outside states where the airports avail international flight service as well.