Mangaluru: More than 2 kg of smuggled gold was recovered by the sleuths of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) from an aircraft that landed at the Mangaluru International Airport on May 16.
The DRI officials confiscated gold concealed in SpiceJet flight SG 479 that arrived at the airport from Mumbai.
The press release from the DRI said that it received credible information that gold of foreign origin was being smuggled on an aircraft bound for Mangalore on May 16. Acting on the intelligence gathered, the sleuths carried out intense search operation in the aircraft. They recovered two gold bars of 1 kg each and a single tola bar of 116.640 grams wrapped in socks from the oxygen mask panel on the top ceiling of the aircraft’s front toilet. The current market price of these gold bars is estimated to be around Rs. 66.67 Lakh.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the gold was originally concealed in the aircraft by a passenger during the aircraft’s international run from Dubai to Mumbai and it was supposed to be retrieved by a domestic passenger during one of its subsequent journeys. Further investigations are underway to nab the smugglers. Incidentally, this is the first case of gold smuggling detected at the Mangaluru Airport after the elections.
