Mangaluru: The The officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mangaluru, arrestedf our persons who were trying to smuggle 16 gold bars weighing 1936.08 grams worth Rs 57.5 lakh, at Mangaluru International Airport on Friday.

Acting on credible intelligence that some international passengers arriving by Air India Flight No AI-814 from Dubai to Mangaluru would attempt to smuggle gold into the country, the DRI officers carried out thorough checking of the passengers.

Four passengers were caught for trying to smuggle 16 gold bars using an ovel modus operandi. The DRI officials noticed that they were wearing heavy shoes which they were made to remove and thereupon it was found that they had pasted gold bars under their soles with adhesive tapes and over it had worn thick socks in a regular fashion.

All the seized gold bars were found to be of 24 Karat purity. The contraband gold was seized by the officers of DRI under the provisions of the Customs Act,1962.

On interrogation, the passengers admitted that they are regular in smuggling and as revealed from their passports they have been frequently flying from Dubai to India. They also revealed that this modus operandi of pasting gold biscuits under their sole was conceived for smuggling gold into the country as they knew that this method of concealment will largely go undetected by the normal customs check at airports, said press a release from Deputy Director Vinayak Bhat.