Thiruvananthapuram: A contract employee of the international airport was held for trying to smuggle gold.
The customs authorities said they had seized 82 gold bars with a total weight of 9.5 kg from the man identified as Anish.
He was caught early Tuesday morning after a person who brought the gold handed it over to him in the toilet.
The CISF officials who grew suspicious of his behaviour intercepted him.
He tried to flee when they started examining him.
The customs later took Mr Anish, an A/C mechanic, into their custody.
Customs deputy commissioner said they were searching for the person who brought the gold.
They will book him under Cofeposa Act, and it was the third arrest of airport employees for gold smuggling in a month.
On April 13, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had arrested four officers for helping to smuggle over 100 kg of gold over six months.
They were Air India Stats employees Kayamkulam native Faisal and Pathanamthitta native Roni and ground handling agency Bhadra's employees Ernakulam native Mebin Joseph and Attingal native Nabeel, besides an agent named Uwais.
On April 11, the DRI arrested an employee of AISATS, Muhammed Shiyas, for aiding gold smugglers.
He was receiving gold from two smuggles as they landed at the airport.
