New Delhi: Delhi Customs has arrested a passenger arriving from Jeddah after recovering 869.5 grams of 24-carat gold ingeniously concealed inside the tyres of an electric scooter at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
The seizure was made on August 6 by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at Terminal 1 following intelligence inputs and passenger profiling, Delhi Customs said in a post on X.
The passenger, who travelled from Jeddah to Delhi via Mumbai on IndiGo flight 6E-6133, was intercepted after arriving at the airport.
According to customs officials, the flyer was carrying household goods along with an electric scooter as part of the checked-in baggage. During X-ray screening, officers detected suspicious images in the luggage, prompting a detailed examination of the scooter, even though the passenger did not trigger the Door Frame Metal Detector (DFMD).
The inspection revealed 19 cut pieces of 24-carat gold, weighing a total of 869.5 grams (net weight), concealed inside the solid core of the e-scooter’s tyres in an apparent attempt to evade customs checks.
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Videos and photographs released by Delhi Customs showed officers cutting open the scooter’s tyres before extracting the hidden gold pieces.
The gold has been seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, and the passenger has been held. Further investigation is underway to establish the source of the gold and whether the smuggling attempt was linked to a larger network.
