Hyderabad: The customs officials arrested a passenger, who had travelled from Singapore to Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International airport on Monday as he was found carrying 33 gold bars stashed in his shoes and taped them around his waist.

According to reports, the passenger, Chowtipalli Suresh, tried to escape the customs officials, who stopped him after they noticed that he was walking strangely. After a complete search, they found gold in his shoes and the cloth around his waist. The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) apprehended Suresh.

The gold bars weighed about 3.3 kg and are worth more than Rs 1 crore. A case has been registered against Suresh for smuggling.

Several cases have been reported from Hyderabad airport on gold smuggling. Earlier this month, the customs officials recovered about 1 kg of gold from a passenger who arrived at the airport from Dubai who tried to smuggle the gold in the form of golden wire coated with silver inside a trolley bag.

In April 2019, a passenger from Doha was caught carrying gold paste hiding them inside his trousers. The gold paste worth Rs 37 lakh was recovered.