Two kgs of smuggled gold seized from woman’s knee caps

The seizure was significant as it established a new route of gold smuggling from the Middle East smuggling cartel, as the carrier had smuggled in the gold from Male, by an Air India flight that came to Chennai via Trivandrum on Friday evening. 

The customs officials arrested Shakeela, a native of Hyderabad and three others based on specific information. The customs officials intercepted Shakeela and gang when they came in for the customs check. Customs officials had specific information regarding the gang but they could not retrieve any gold when they examined the baggage of the gang. The woman customs officials then took Shakeela for private examination and found the gold bars kept concealed inside the knee caps she was wearing. 

“Two gold bars weighing one kg each were concealed in each of the knee cap. We recovered the gold and have arrested all four members of the gang. Further investigations are on,” a senior customs official told DT Next. 

Officials who were part of the investigation said Shakeela appeared to a regular carrier for the smuggling cartel as she refused to declare the gold even when questioned by the Customs officer prior to her physical examination.