Customs officials at the Hyderabad airport caught a passenger smuggling gold into the country concealed as beads stitched onto a consignment of burqas.

The male passenger who arrived on a flight from Dubai was carrying 350 grams of gold worth around Rs 18.2 lakh. The gold was concealed in hundreds of beads that were stitched onto burqas, which were part of the checked-in baggage of the passenger who arrived on a Flydubai flight.

A video shared by Hyderabad Customs on Twitter shows a person removing the gold beads from a burqa. "On 27.02.22, Hyderabad Customs booked a case of smuggling of gold valued Rs.18.18 lakh weighing 350 grams against a passenger who arrived from Dubai by Flight No.FZ-439," the Customs department wrote while sharing the video. "Pax concealed gold in beads form which were stitched to burqas."

Gold smuggling from the Gulf countries is on the rise as earlier in January this year Customs officials at the Hyderabad airport had seized 970 grams of gold worth over Rs 47 lakh that was being smuggled into the country from a male passenger who arrived on a flight from Sharjah.

Gold in paste form was concealed inside the bandages tied to the calves of both legs of the smuggler, according to Customs officials.

In December, too, Customs authorities at Hyderabad airport had recovered a whopping 7.3 kg of gold worth Rs 3.6 crore that was being smuggled into the country by four Sudanese passengers who had arrived from Dubai.

The two men and two women arrived on a Dubai-Hyderabad Air India flight and had concealed the gold paste in their rectums. The gold was valued at around Rs 3.6 crores.

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