Customs officials at the Mangaluru International Airport seized gold weighing 1,052 grams and valued at Rs 34.75 lakh concealed as parts of a mixer in the luggage of a person who arrived from Dubai.
The gold was found in the luggage of a SpiceJet flight SG60 and it was concealed as mercury-coated ingots in the motor of a Nikai brand mixer.
"Customs officials at Mangaluru airport seized foreign origin gold 24-karat weighing 1052.90 gms net and valued at Rs 34.75 lakh. It was concealed as two mercury-coated ingots in the motor of Nikai brand mixer in check-in luggage which arrived from Dubai by SpiceJet flight," according to a statement from the Customs Department.
No information was released about the identity of the owner of the luggage. Further investigation is underway on the issue.
This comes just two months after customs officials at the Mangaluru Airport seized gold weighing 142 grams and valued at Rs 4.65 lakh from a passenger arriving in the same SpiceJet SG60 flight on March 19. On that occasion, the gold was concealed in the form of 32 mercury-coated pieces in magnetic bracelets.
In April, customs officials seized gold from two persons arriving in an Air India Express flight from Doha. The passengers had stuffed gold paste in their anuses in an attempt to bypass customs officials. The same method was also detected on four other days in March.