Kochi, May 11 (IANS): The arrest of a passenger coming from Dubai with 20 gold bars at the Cochin airport on Saturday shows that smuggling of the precious metal through this airport continues unabated.

The passenger, Khader Maitheen, a resident of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, was picked up by the Air Intelligence Unit officials after they became suspicious on seeing him walk through the green channel.

After a detailed inspection they detected 20 gold bars weighing around 2330 grams stitched to his clothes .

The officials estimated the value of the seizure to be Rs 1.50 crores.

In the first quarter of 2024, customs officials have seized 30.2 kg of gold worth close to Rs 10 crores in 36 different attempts at smuggling.

Around 90 per cent of the seizures at the Cochin airport came from passengers who arrived from various Middle East airports.

Another interesting aspect is that out of the 36 gold smuggling attempts , the carriers in 20 instances brought gold in the form of paste as it’s believed that the metal detectors fail to detect gold in paste form, but the alert officials foiled such attempts.

In most cases, those arrested are carriers who get a percentage of the smuggled gold for carrying it with them.