The customs department seized gold worth over ₹1 crore from seven passengers who arrived in different flights at the Kannur International Airport on Sunday evening.
2637 grams of gold was seized from six passengers who arrived from Dubai in a chartered flight. They concealed the metal in the waistband of their trousers. Similarly, another passenger from Dubai was arrested for trying to smuggle in 449 grams of the gold.
In both cases, a team led by E. Vikas, Assistant Commissioner, seized the gold from the arrested passengers.
Interestingly, efforts to smuggle gold through Kannur airport has seen a huge jump in recent years. In 2018-19, the customs seized 3 kilograms of gold. This increased to 33 kilograms in 2019-20.
