Air India cabin crew caught smuggling gold under uniform

An Air India crew member was arrested in Kerala for attempting to smuggle gold. Shafi Sharaf, a native of Wayanad, had wrapped 1,487 grams of gold around his forearms. His plan was to cover the gold with his shirtsleeves and pass through the green channel of customs clearance, which is for passengers who don’t have any dutiable goods to declare.

The Customs Preventive Commissionerate, however, received confidential information that the Air India cabin crew member of the Bahrain-Kozhikode-Kochi service was bringing gold.

Shafi was arrested at Kochi airport based on the tip-off. A photo shared by news agency ANI shows how he had wrapped the gold paste around his arms.
According to Jagran News, the accused had arrived in Kochi from Bahrain at around 8.30 pm. He was apprehended and transported to the Customs preventive wing less than two hours later, at around 10.20 pm.

In related news, gold bars worth Rs 3.32 crore were seized at Chennai international airport. Two passengers, including a Sri Lankan national, were arrested in this connection, the Customs department said.

The authorities, acting on specific inputs, intercepted two passengers who arrived in Chennai from Singapore on Tuesday and retrieved 68 gold bars weighed 6.8 kg concealed in their baggage.