Twenty seven of the thirty six flyers arriving from Sharjah to Lucknow Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport detained by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for smuggling gold tablets ingested in stomach and rectum fled from the custody of Lucknow Airport Customs on Tuesday.
While questioning, a suspect feigned illness and collapsed while the other suspect taking advantage of the chaos fled the airport customs custody.
Gold Tablets Discovered In Detained Flyers At Lucknow Airport
The flyers were detained for suspected cigarette smuggling by DRI and Customs on Sharjah Lucknow flight early Monday morning. The questioning of the detained passengers from Tanda region of Lucknow run by organised gold smuggling syndicate led to the discovery of ingested gold tablets in the stomach and rectum of the flyers.
““The enmass smuggling racket was busted by DRI of contraband cigarettes of Rs 3 crore and cash of Rs 23 lakhs seized during frisking of the suspects. While the detained suspects were questioned and fed with bananas and laxatives to retrieve the infested gold tablets, a passenger feigned unconscious to divert attention creating chaos for others to escape,” confirmed senior CISF official at Lucknow airport.
Impact Of Mumbai Airport Customs' Crackdown On Gold Smuggling
According to senior Customs officials, the sustained action on gold smuggling rackets by the Mumbai Airport Customs leading to seizures of gold concealed in body parts has led to contraband gold carriers to use other smaller airports to evade detection.
Last month Mumbai Airport Customs seized foreign currency and contraband gold worth Rs 10.60 crore in eight different cases at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
