Mumbai, Mar 26 (Mid-day) : On the night shift of March 24, Customs officials intercepted 18 kgs of gold, worth a whopping R4.96 crore, making it the biggest seizure in a single night shift at the Mumbai International Airport.

Between 11 pm and 5 am, officials caught four cases of gold smuggling, which included gold biscuits, chains, kadas and bangles. In the first case, seven passengers arriving from Bangkok with Mauritian passports were intercepted with 37 crude bangles and five crude kadas, weighing approximately 4.9 kg.

According to an official, it was a rare case on a Mauritius flight, with an entire family smuggling gold. In the second case, Vinay Kumar Balkishan was detained with a ticket from Dubai to Mumbai after he entered the international transit lounge by duping an Air India staff with a domestic Mumbai-Ahmedabad ticket. He was carrying seven kg of gold jewellery worth Rs 1.92 crore.

In the other two cases, Customs officials thoroughly searched two flights, 9W 537 and 543 of Jet Airways from Dubai, after receiving a tip-off. They managed to recover three kgs of gold from both the aircraft’s toilets, valued at Rs 82 lakh each.

“The night has been quite hectic for us and the team has done a great job. All the smugglers have been arrested,” said a Customs official. Customs officials have seized 332 kgs of gold worth Rs 82 crore in the current fiscal.