Gold billets worth Rs.25 lakhs were seized from a person coming from Sharjah at the Coimbatore airport in the early hours of today.

Based on a tip-off about gold being smuggled in from Sharjah, the airport authorities carried out search of the passengers on the Air Arabia flight, police said. They noticed one Salman Paris moving around in a suspicious manner, and carried out search on his person. They removed eight billets, weighing about 930 grams, hidden in his rectum.

Preliminary inquiry revealed that Salman Paris, a native of Kozhikode district in Kerala, had gone abroad in search of employment. When he couldn’t find a good job, he decided to smuggle gold.

Police are now investigating the persons behind sending the gold through Salman.