In separate incidents, the Customs Department sleuths have seized gold worth Rs 95 lakh from some foreign nationals who reached here via different flights at the Amritsar airport.
According to Customs Commissioner, Amritsar, Dipak Kumar Gupta, the Custom officials posted at the Shri Guru Ram Das International Airport here nabbed 18 Turkmenistan nationals, including 15 women, in two separate cases.
They were travelling from Ashgabat via Turkmenistan Airlines on June 30 and July 1 for allegedly smuggling gold in the form of chains, rings and bracelets worth around Rs 40 lakh.
He said that on July 1, two international passengers, travelling from Dubai via Air India Express flight, were intercepted by the Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs.
During their search, they were allegedly found concealing inside their rectum six biscuits and twelve cut pieces of biscuit of gold (24 carat) of foreign origin weighing 398 g valued at Rs 44 lakh.
The passengers in their statements to the officials have confessed to the possession, carriage, concealment and smuggling of gold to India. The recovered gold has been seized and the passengers were arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act 1962, Gupta said.
He said that on June 30, a Canadian national arriving from Dubai via Spicejet flight, was intercepted by the Customs officials while crossing the green channel and one gold chain of 24 carat, weighing 300 g valued at Rs 9.50 lakh was seized from him.
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