A 19-year-old woman was arrested at the Karipur airport in Kerala for allegedly smuggling gold worth Rs 1 crore. The gold was found sewn to her undergarments.
Shahla, a native of Kasaragod, was apprehended by the police outside the airport for trying to smuggle nearly 1.8 kgs of gold in fixed form. She tried to smuggle the precious metal by hiding it inside her clothes.
Reportedly, the woman arrived on the Air India Express from Dubai at 10:30 pm on Sunday. She came out of the airport at 11 PM after the customs check, and the police took her into custody based on a secret tip-off.
However, when the police examined her luggage, they could not find anything. Subsequently, they undertook the body examination of the woman, finding packets of gold sewn to her undergarments. The police have launched an investigation into the matter and are trying to ascertain others involved in the scam.
Earlier this year, the customs officials in Mangaluru arrested two persons for smuggling gold from Dubai in two separate incidents. The accused were arrested at Mangaluru International Airport and have been identified as Zeenath Banu and Muhammad Iqbal.
The Customs officials in Mangaluru confirmed the arrests and stated that the gold that was being smuggled is of 24-carat purity and value worth Rs 1.366 crore. Reports mention that the lady carried the smuggled gold in her sanitary pads whereas Iqbal concealed the gold inside his rectum as four balls wrapped in celluloid-based tape and a condom, Mathrubhumi reported.
Gold smuggling a persistent concern among customs officials
Gold smugglers appear to be a very persistent concern among customs officials. In recent times, a lot of smugglers have been arrested during an attempt to smuggle gold into the country by stuffing it inside their undergarments and rectums.
To give readers an idea of how prevalent the phenomenon is, customs officials around the country recovered at least 15.67 kilos of gold from rectums in 2020. The instances of smuggling gold in rectums began in the first week of January 2020.
