From The Associated Press
NEW DELHI (AP) — Cleaners found a stash of 24 gold bars worth more than $1.1 million hidden in an airplane lavatory after a flight from Bangkok arrived in eastern India, officials said Wednesday.
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The Jet Airways plane had landed in Kolkata and was being cleaned before a scheduled flight to Patna when the cleaners found two bags with the gold stashed inside, Customs official Mona Priyadarshini said.
Priyadarshini said the gold bars weighed around 1 kilogram each. Customs officials confiscated the stash and are investigating.
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India is one of the world’s biggest consumers of gold. The government increased the gold import duty recently, which officials say has encouraged smuggling.
Photo: mevans/istockphoto
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