Customs officers of the Air Intelligence Unit, on Saturday, seized 628 grams of crude gold ornaments from seven Sri Lankan passengers who arrived at the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL).

The seized gold, according to the Customs officials, is worth around `18.73 lakh.

The seven passengers, who were detained by authorities, had arrived in Kochi by Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL165 from Colombo at 8.30 am.

According to Customs officials, Vigneswaran Sethuraman, Mohammed Rishad and Mohammed were of Sri Lankan origin while Jayaram Lenin, Thiagarajan Nagapandy, Ramu Subramani and Raju Chettiar Navaneetha Kannan were of Indian origin.

They walked through the green channels hurriedly pulling the checked baggage, but on grounds of doubt all of them were intercepted before they could pass through the exit gate. On further inspection, they were found to be hiding gold ornaments on their person. According to the Customs norms, foreigners are not allowed to bring gold into India. They are not even allowed to pay duty and claim the gold. (Indian Express)