Customs officials of the Air Intelligence Unit at the Visakhapatnam airport recovered 18 gold biscuits, weighing 347 grams, from the stomach of a Sri Lankan national who landed in the city on Sunday morning.

According to reports, the estimated price of the gold is Rs 10.56 lakh. 

The accused, identified as Abdul Razak Mohammed Ziyard, was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and taken into custody.

The Deccan Chronicle reported that officials intercepted the accused at the green channel, based on intelligence gathered by the officers of Air Intelligence Unit at the Vizag airport.

When questioned, he confessed to concealing 18 gold biscuits in his stomach and rectum.

The DC report adds that Abdul Razak ejected four biscuits on his own, and was taken to the King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam, where the remaining were removed by doctors.  

According to reports, this is the second such incident in recent times, as three women passengers of Sri Lankan origin who arrived from Colombo were intercepted and gold jewellery weighing 740 gm was confiscated earlier.

Such incidents are frequent at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), as a man carrying 1.2 kg of gold in his rectum was caught in February this year.

In January, custom officials at the RGIA seized gold biscuits weighing over a kilogram from a passenger who concealed the bars in his rectum.

The officials recovered 1.19 kg gold from the passenger, when he tried to walk out through the green channel concealing six gold biscuits.

The gold, which was seized, was valued at Rs 34.46 lakh in the international bullion market.

The passenger was said to have come to the city from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by an Air India flight.

The New Indian Express reported that such form of smuggling was called body packing, as it involved stuffing contraband in the form of packages, hidden in anatomical cavities such as the mouth, rectum, intestine, ear and vagina.