A Sri Lankan who attempted to smuggle 18 gold biscuits worth Rs.11.7 million concealed in his rectum area and a Thai woman who had undeclared foreign currency in her hand bag of value of Rs.3,576,096 were nabbed by the customs officers of the Bandaranaike International Airport this morning.

The Sri Lankan suspect had arrived at the airport on board UL 141 which was scheduled to leave for Mumbai at 12.10am. Sources revealed the suspect to be a 54 year old person from the Dematagoda area, who had declared to customs that he is a director of a company. The customs noted that the suspect had travelled between Sri Lanka and India on 24 other occasions. On a tip off received by the Director of Customs Dayawansa Senarath, the suspect had been nabbed by Superintendent of Customs D.R. Luxman at the Departure Terminal. He had disclosed to the customs that he is doing business in India and that he had nothing to declare.  However the customs detected the suspect to be carrying gold biscuits, meticulously packed in carbon paper and concealed in his rectum area.

The Thai woman (36) was arrested minutes before she boarded Thai Airways flight TG 308 to Bangkok. She had arrived in Sri Lanka in December 2010 and records indicate that she had arrived in the Island several times before as well. (Deepa Adhikari)