Women smuggle gold from Sri Lanka to India

Two Sri Lankan women and a teenage girl have been nabbed by the customs officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on Sunday, while attempting to smuggle out 676 grams of unfinished gold jewellery to India worth around Rs3.8 million, ‘Daily News’ reported.

“The arrested females confessed that the jewellery was given to them by a travel agent to be handed over to a person in Chennai,” Customs Director and spokesman Leslie Gamini said.

After an investigation conducted by Deputy Customs Director Stanley Senaratne, 10 gold bangles and three necklaces seized from the female passengers have been forfeited by the customs.

In the wake of the customs announcing that new restrictions would be imposed on the amount of gold jewellery a passenger can carry when leaving the country, this latest smuggling attempt to India came to light after 56 Lankans were arrested, on charges of smuggling over 11 kgs of gold, at the Cochin Airport in Kerala State, he said.

Customs spokesman said that as there is a sharp increase in gold price in India, attempts to smuggle gold overseas have also increased.

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