A local gem merchant who tried to export a stock of gems and raw gold worth Rs.64million under a false declaration was arrested by the Customs Air Cargo Village official this morning.
Two metal safety boxes of one containing various types of gems weighing 63, 276 carat and the other concealing 08 pieces of raw gold weighing 3.4kilograms were examined by the Customs at Air Cargo Village today.
Although the merchant had declared the worth of the gems is at Rs.1.1million the Customs Gem Appraisers had later found that the precious stones were worth almost six times the declared amount, Customs Spokesman Director Leslie Gamini said.
The gems that were to be exported to Chennai, India contained Opals, Sapphires and Moonstones.
The detection was conducted by Assistant Director General of Customs Dr. Dilip Kumarasinghe, Superintendents W D Ratnasiri, Bathiya Abeyratne, Customs Gem Appraisers Channa Shanthapriya, Ajith Siriwardena and G M Ratnayake.