Kochi: Passenger carrying gold worth 90 lakhs concealed in rectum detained at airport

In a major crackdown against a smuggling racket, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Kochi in Kerala on Sunday (August 27) seized gold weighing 1706.950 grams, worth Rs 90 lakhs. The accused identified as Anandavally Vijayakumar was coming from Kuwait at the Cochin International Airport. 

The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) investigation revealed that the accused Vijayakumar, involved in the smuggling of gold, concealed it in a paste form and encapsulated it inside four capsule-shaped packets inside the rectum of a female passenger. The goods were attempted to be imported into India. 

Air Intelligence Unit’s earlier seizures 

The AIU has already seized 1260 grams of gold worth 53 lakhs at Kochi airport in this case, in May 2023. Further, the middlemen who attempted to assist the cartel in clearance of the consignment from the Indian Customs, were arrested earlier. The three masterminds have accepted their active role in the said smuggling activity. They have been arrested under the provisions of the Indian Customs Act, of 1962. 

On June 1, Kochi Customs officials seized gold worth Rs 47.2 lakh from two passengers in two different cases. The first passenger from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Thaneswaran Kuppuswamy, carried 710.30 grams of gold worth Rs 37.22 lakh. Of the total 710.30 grams, the Customs seized three crude chains (567.41g), two gold pendants (40.58g) and a gold bangle (102.4g). The passenger had kept the gold under his clothes. In another case, passenger Mohammed Rasheed smuggled gold worth Rs 10 lakh from Sharjah by Air India flight.

Earlier, the Customs officials recovered two capsule-shaped packets containing gold paste weighing 554.600 grams and two crude gold chains weighing 230.300 from a passenger traveling from Malaysia to Kochi on July 11, 2023. The Customs found capsule-shaped packets containing gold in paste form in the rectum of the passenger.