CHENNAI: Smuggling of gold seems to be making a return to Chennai airport after a hiatus, as customs officials have made the second seizure within a week. In the latest, a middle-aged Myanmar couple was arrested for smuggling nearly 2kg gold worth Rs 2.65 crore from Bangkok on Saturday, raising doubts about smuggling cartels engaging foreign nationals to smuggle gold.The air intelligence unit of Chennai customs intercepted the female passenger at first on suspicion as she attempted to exit through the green channel. Though the passenger initially claimed that she was visiting Chennai for medical treatment, she did not have any valid medical documents with her.During interrogation, she admitted to having hidden gold inside her body. Customs sleuths recovered multiple gold pellets wrapped in adhesive tape from her. The woman’s husband too was subjected to searches and he had concealed in his rectum two gold masses wrapped in transparent rubber pouches.Together, the gold seized weighed around 1.967 kg worth Rs 2.65 crore. The couple was arrested under Customs Act and remanded in judicial custody.Customs officials said that this is the first time they come across Myanmar nationals being engaged to smuggle gold.“The couple travelled from Rangoon to Bangkok and from there to Chennai on the same day. Holding gold in rectum requires practice, so we are investigating if gold smuggling cartels have devised a new modus operandi of engaging unsuspecting foreign nationals to smuggle gold,” added an official.It maybe noted that an Indian woman was caught smuggling 1.088 kg of gold from Dubai on August 10.Customs department has tightened scrutiny at airports across India as smuggling of gold has resumed after the hike in import duty of gold from 6% to 15% in May. “Smuggling cartels are slowly switching from hydroponic weed to gold due to high demand and big profit and are coming up novel methods to deceive sleuths as engaging regular couriers will be risky,” added customs sleuths.
