Nedumbassery: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 3.286kg of gold, and arrested a passenger and a ground handling staff at the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery on Friday.
Malappuram native Muhammed Ashraf who landed from Dubai in an Emirates flight, and Paul Joseph, an employee of Bird Worldwide Flight Services, were the arrested.
After getting a tip off that a passenger would try to smuggle gold, the DRI sleuths conducted searches and caught them.
They seized 10 gold pieces, including two gold biscuits each weighing 1kg, two biscuits of 116 gm each and four gold coins.
After the immigration checks, Ashraf handed over the gold to Joseph at the washroom.
Joseph was already waiting for Ashraf at the washroom. Ashraf had hidden the gold in packets and carried them in his handbag.
Seizure at Karipur too
About 1.4 kg of gold worth Rs 45 lakh was seized from two passengers at the Kozhikode international airport located at Karipur. They tried to smuggle the gold by hiding it in the body. Both the passengers are from Karnataka - Muhammed Emra of Bhatkal and Nisar Ahmed of Mangaluru.
