Smugglers are getting innovative and are finding new and unique ways to smuggle things into the country. In a bizarre incident, a passenger was caught at Chennai airport for hiding gold worth Rs 12 lakh in his slippers. You read that right!
On Monday, 21-year-old Mohammed Hasan Ali hailing from Ramanathapuram, arrived from Dubai and was heading to the exit when his slippers came off. Wanting to help him, a Customs official at Chennai airport, picked up the latter’s slipper that had come off, only to find it was unusually heavy and had gold hidden inside.
“On examination, it was noticed that the leather slippers had unusually broad straps having a specially designed cavity in which gold paste packets wrapped with red adhesive tape were concealed,” said Commissioner of Customs, Chennai International Airport said in a statement.
Four gold paste packets — two from each slipper and weighing 292 grams — were recovered. On extraction, 239 grams of 24K purity gold valued at Rs 12 lakh was recovered and seized under Customs Act.
This is not the first time such an incident has taken place at the Chennai airport. Earlier, gold weighing 286 grams and valued at Rs 14.12 lakh, was seized from a person who had tried to smuggle it into the country, concealed in various items of personal care.
