Visakhapatnam: In one of the largest seizures of smuggled gold, officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Chennai, and Customs officials at the Vizag airport seized 63 kg gold bars valued at around Rs 16.85 crore, and detained 55 passengers.
The passengers, all from Tamil Nadu, had landed in Vizag on Silk Air, Air Asia and Malindo flights from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on Sunday night.
Sources said that the 55 passengers had split into three groups and had boarded flights from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and reached Vizag on Sunday evening.
Based on the information, DRI officials, supported by Customs, rounded up the carriers, whose handlers or operators are said to be in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu. The DRI authorities from Chennai had landed at Vizag airport earlier on Sunday evening.
Initially, 20 passengers, who arrived from Malaysia on an Air Asia flight, were found to be carrying gold bars concealed inside electronic goods. Then, another 10 passengers, from Singapore on a Silk Air flight, were found carrying electronic goods such as LED TVs, microwave ovens etc. with gold bars concealed inside.
Following this, 25 more passengers, who came from Malaysia, were apprehended trying to smuggle in gold bars in the same fashion.
