Kathmandu, August 5

A Chinese national was arrested with four kilograms gold with the help of Airport Customs Office at Tribhuvan International Airport at around 10:30pm last night.

Lin Ning Xi was arrested during routine security check. Xi had hidden the precious yellow metal in a belt kept inside his luggage.

Chief of the Airport Customs Office Gajendra Thakur said instead of wearing the belt around his waist, the suspect had kept it inside his luggage bag, which was a little weird. “Normally, these days smugglers change the outer colour of the precious yellow metal and try different ways to smuggle gold. But this young fellow had simply placed the gold inside the luggage without properly hiding it.”

Four bars of gold weighing one kilogram each were detected by the X-ray machine during security scanning.

Xi, a permanent resident of Beijing, had travelled from Hong Kong and landed in Kathmandu on Dragon Flight KA 104.

Thakur said the 23-year-old had visited Nepal earlier in 2018 and his travel history showed that he had travelled to countries such as the UAE, Ghana and Hong Kong. “These are countries frequently visited by gold smugglers. This has given us enough room to suspect that Xi was actively involved in smuggling gold,” Thakur added.

Meanwhile Deputy Inspector General Sailesh Thapa Chettri said police are working closely with customs officials to find out the Chinese smuggler’s contact person here in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu District Court has remanded Xi to six days of judicial custody for further investigation.

Of late, the number people involved in gold smuggling via China has been on the rise. A few days ago, on July 25, Dhana Kamal Gurung, a trader of Dharche Rural Municipality, Gorkha, was arrested for allegedly hiding 16 kilogram illegal gold, which was smuggled through Kerung-Rasuwagadi check-point at Nepal-Tibet border.

Police had confiscated 16 gold bars each weighing one kilogram hidden inside a cave. However, police is yet confirm whether Gurung had smuggled the gold inside the country himself or a smuggling racket was involved.

Similarly, in the second week of April, TIA police, had arrested three Chinese nationals with 3.3 kilograms gold concealed in their rectum.