Six Indians and one Sri Lankan who attempted to board a flight to Chennai after having swallowed gold bars had been arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) by Customs Officials last night, Customs spokesman Leslie Gamini said.

The suspects were arrested over a tip-off that seven people had arrived at the BIA in a vehicle to flee heading Chennai.

The X –Ray images later revealed that each had several bars of gold in their stomach and the medical report said about 13, 5, 1 and 6 pieces of gold had been swallowed by each individual.

Four pieces of gold were taken out from two suspects, he said.

“The passengers are kept at the airport and fed with fibrous diet until they pass out of the contraband with the excreta,”

The value of the gold bars is to be estimated after they were taken out. The Customs had obtained a court order to keep the suspects for further questioning (Chaturanga Pradeep-DM Online)