Lucknow: Alert security personnel detained 12 passengers hiding gold inside their body cavity, outside terminal one (T1) of Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport (CCSIA), on Saturday. These 12 were among 19 passengers detained by customs sleuths the same morning with cigarettes and paan masala worth Rs 1.4 crore at the airport as they were attempting to smuggle the consignment out of the airport.
According to sources, all accused are couriers of the smuggling cartel and hail from Tanda area of Rampur district.
Speaking to TOI, sub-inspector Jag Prasad of airport police outpost said, “Following a tip-off, we had detained 14 suspects outside T1 as they came to Lucknow from Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. During questioning, 12 of them admitted to having gold concealed in their body cavity either by swallowing the gold paste concealed in capsule form or by hiding the capsule in their rectum.”
He added, “We also came to know that these suspects were earlier detained by air customs sleuths at the airport for attempting to smuggle large quantities of cigarette and paan masala, so we handed over 12 passengers to customs.” The SI had, in Oct last year, caught a passenger and his two handlers outside T1 with 1.6 kg gold.
