CUSTOMS SEIZE RS.4.5M WORTH GOLD

A Sri Lankan man who tried to smuggle out a stock of Gold biscuits and jewellery weighing up to a kilogram carefully concealed in his rectum was nabbed by the Customs officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport yesterday afternoon.

The man who was bound for Coimbatore in South India on a Sri Lanka Airways flight UL 193 at 1.30pm was nabbed at the Customs counters on suspicion.

Customs Spokesman Deputy Director Sunil Jayaratne told the Daily Mirror that the man was privately searched to retrieve the gold he had hidden in his rectum. The sleuths found several gold biscuits and yellow gold articles (made similar to chains) neatly inserted in his rectum. The gold biscuits were weighing at 549.7grams whereas the chains weighed at 355.07grams totalling altogether 904.77grams. The stock of gold articles had been valued at Rs.4,523,850. The detection was made by Customs Superintendent Wasantha Kumara Kobawaka and his team SC D Bopage, ASCS T. B. Samaraweera, E. L. Thanthiriwatte, M. G. P. Pabasara and H. W. S. Silva on the instructions of Deputy Directors S. Ranasinghe and Tharaka Devapriya. Meanwhile, an Indian national who tried to smuggle out a stash of foreign currencies worth up to Rs.9.6 million was nabbed by the Airport and Aviation Security officials and was handed over to the Customs yesterday morning.

The Indian national possessed USD 62,000 hidden in his clothes in a hand luggage.

He was reported to have told the Customs officials that he had no idea to declare the amount of money he was carrying prior to aboard a flight.