Kochi: The country's most educated state has emerged as a gold smuggling hotspot these days. Gold smugglers are being arrested in Kerala every day. The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs Department at Kochi airport on Saturday (November 26) arrested two smugglers with gold capsules hidden in their bodies. The value of the recovered gold is more than Rs 94 lakh.

Of the two smugglers who have been apprehended, one was coming from Kuwait, while the other had come to India from Dubai. Both had small gold capsules hidden in their bodies. The officials intercepted them on suspicion and took them into custody after recovering the gold. Earlier on Thursday (November 24), the Customs AIU had arrested two passengers with fake passports from Kochi airport. The officials had also seized gold worth over Rs 2 crore from the possession of the arrested accused.

According to the report, the customs department had received information regarding them from the informer. After this, Syed Abu Tahir and Barkatullah were arrested. Both are residents of Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu. They landed at the airport after traveling in the name of Vasudevan and Arul Selvam. The officials had stopped the two for questioning. He had hidden gold very viciously in his handbag as ten capsules. During interrogation, the duo told officials that they were handed over the handbag by a Sri Lankan national in the security hall of Mumbai airport. The gold was smuggled from Gulf countries to Mumbai airport.

Earlier this month, the Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs department seized around 422 grams of gold worth over Rs 38 lakh at Kochi airport. Customs officials said a special pocket was made in the underwear and sewn with gold inside it. The gold was seized from passengers coming from Dubai.

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