Kozhikode: Customs officials at Karipur Airport, which has emerged as one of the top four hotspots for gold smuggling into the country, now have a new headache in the form garbage gold.
With smugglers depositing contraband gold in garbage bags inside flights and retrieving them later, possibly with the help of garbage clearing staff, customs have been forced to take the unprecedented step of conducting x-ray scans on trash bags in flights arriving from the Gulf.
Customs officials said Karipur airport could possibly be the only airport in the country where garbage bags and even food trolleys have to be scanned through the x-ray machine for hidden gold.
The decision was taken following intelligence inputs, which proved right as officials seized 2 kg of gold from one such bags from an Air Arabia flight last week.
"Smugglers had recently tried abandoning gold inside aircraft toilets and other places. To make our system foolproof, we now scan trash bags coming from flights," said customs assistant commissioner Lokesh Damor.
28/10/14 Times of India
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With smugglers depositing contraband gold in garbage bags inside flights and retrieving them later, possibly with the help of garbage clearing staff, customs have been forced to take the unprecedented step of conducting x-ray scans on trash bags in flights arriving from the Gulf.
Customs officials said Karipur airport could possibly be the only airport in the country where garbage bags and even food trolleys have to be scanned through the x-ray machine for hidden gold.
The decision was taken following intelligence inputs, which proved right as officials seized 2 kg of gold from one such bags from an Air Arabia flight last week.
"Smugglers had recently tried abandoning gold inside aircraft toilets and other places. To make our system foolproof, we now scan trash bags coming from flights," said customs assistant commissioner Lokesh Damor.
28/10/14 Times of India
