Mangaluru : The officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Mangaluru, has arrested four passengers at Mangaluru International Airport for trying to smuggle 16 gold bars on Friday October 13.

Air India flight AI-814 which arrived from Dubai to Mangaluru at around 4.30 am, the officers of DRI carried out thorough checking of the passengers at the Mangaluru International Airport found smuggling 16 gold bars in four passangers.

The four passengers were wearing heavy shoes which they were made to remove and thereupon it was found that they had pasted the gold bars under their soles with adhesive tapes and over it had worn thick socks in a regular fashion.

The gold bars weighed 1936.08 grams in total and were found to be of 24 karat purity and their current market value was placed at around 57.5 lakh. The contraband gold was later seized by the officers of DRI under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

The smugglers 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.

Further investigation in progress.