DRI nabs passenger smuggling gold worth Rs 20 lakh at MIA

Mangaluru: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Mangaluru officials on Thursday, June 7 nabbed a person attempting to smuggling gold worth Rs 20 lakhs into the city, at the Mangalore International Airport (MIA). The accused, Umar Farook (28), a resident of Kannadaguli, Maila Bantwal Taluk had arrived at MIA from Dubai in a Spicejet Flight at around 6.15 pm on Thursday. The officials, who had been tipped off about gold being smuggled at the airport, had mounted surveillance to nab the perpetrator. On arrival of the aircraft from Dubai, Farook was identified right at the exit of the green channel, intercepted and escorted to the Customs Arrival area for thorough checking. During the scrutiny of his belongings, officials found that he was carrying a multimedia speaker system. When the officials opened the same, they found that gold weighing around 699 grams, of 24 Karat purity was cleverly concealed inside the transformer of the speaker system to avoid detection. The market value of the gold seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 is estimated to be around Rs 21.53 lakhs. Investigation in the case is in progress. Source: News Karnataka