Customs seized Rs.35.5 Mn worth of gold

Two airline company employees, who were attempting to smuggle into the country 75 gold biscuits worth Rs.37.50 million, were arrested by SriLankan airline security staff at the Bandaranaike International Airport this morning.

Customs Spokesman Leslie Gamini said the suspects were later handed over to the Customs.

“They are employees of an airline company and hired out to SriLankan airline. One of the suspects was a driver,” he said.

The parcel of gold biscuits weighed 7.5 kilograms. The suspects had arrived in Sri Lanka from Singapore,” Mr. Gamini said. “This is the second major detection this year. A total of 35 kilograms of gold worth Rs.145 million has been confiscated on 25 separate instances so far,” he said.

Mr. Gamini said the suspects and the contraband would be handed over to the Customs Central Investigation Division for further investigations.

Investigations are being carried out by Deputy Director A.T. Walawage and Superintendent Wijekulasooriya. (Chaturanga Pradeep)