Contraband worth Rs 93L seized in April

Mangaluru: During April, customs officers at Mangalore Inte rnational Airport at Kenjar here seized smuggled gold, cigarettes and foreign currency valued over Rs 93 lakh.
Officers seized contraband gold of above 2.2-kgs which were ingeniously concealed and attempted to be smuggled. In the first case, primary gold was concealed in motor portion of a mixer grinder was recovered and in the second case two cylindrical shape gold rods concealed in battery portion of mobile power banks were recovered.The value of gold seized in these two cases is estimated to be over Rs 68 lakh. One passenger was also arrested in this connection.
On gathering inputs there is a surge in smuggling of foreign currency by passengers departing to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, officers kept special watch on movements of certain profiled passengers.
This resulted in seizures of foreign currency attempted to be smuggled out of India equivalent to Rs 22.88 lakh in six separate cases.
Further five cases of smuggling of cigarettes of various foreign brand valued over Rs.2.44 lakh were detected and the contraband seized.
Investigations are in progress, M Subramaniyam, commissioner, customs said.