Five held at airport for trying to smuggle gold, drugs

In separate cases, five air passengers, including a foreign national, were arrested from the Mumbai international airport for allegedly trying to smuggle gold and drugs collectively worth Rs 1.2 crore, a Customs official said today.
The arrests were made on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, they said.
In a gold smuggling case, four Indian passengers -- Rameshbhai Godhani, Hiren Kumar Gohik, Jignesh Ukani and Navinchand Patel -- who arrived here from Dubai on a Jet Airways flight, were caught with crude gold bracelets weighing one kg each collectively valued at Rs 1.09 crore, the official said.
The quartet was arrested for smuggling under relevant sections of the Customs Act, the official added.

In the drug smuggling case, Malawi national Chikaya Francis was arrested with 20 kg of Ephedrine drug worth Rs 20 lakh that was hidden below the bottom of his suitcase, the official said.
The accused was scheduled to depart to Blantyre in Malawi on Ethiopian airlines flight today via Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, the official added.