Nsimalen Int’l Airport: Gold bar worth over 33 million FCFA seized from US citizen.

According to information from the Communication service of the Customs department, the gold bar was intercepted by officers of the Anti-Trafficking Airport Unit known by its French acronym CAAT. This was during search led by Captain Marcellin Onguene. 

The valuable mineral is said to have been concealed in the cabin baggage of an American citizen who boarded the flight to Yaounde from Saudi Arabia via the Ethiopian Airlines.   

According to gold publication site, goldrate24.com, 760gramme of gold bar is worth about 33 million FCFA. 

The latest seizure comes days after a consignment of Tramadol tablets was impounded by Customs officers at the Douala International Airport. 

The intercepted items last June 4, was estimated at worth over 700 million FCFA. The said operation, conducted by officers of the Douala Airport Customs 

Commercial Subdivision, was led by Captain Gabriel Ngha Nforand, under the supervision of the Acting Head of the Littoral II Customs Sector, Jean Patrice Hissoak Bonguen.

The illegal goods had been loaded into 14 parcels, containing 8,400,000 Tramadol tablets, had been offloaded from a flight from South Sudan. A similar interception by Customs officers still at the Douala International Airport also occurred on last May 31. 

A substantial shipment of cocaine, weighing 24kg, was captured after the traffic drug had been disguised in cargo of shoes shipped from Sao Paulo, in Brazil, to Douala.

Upon inspection of some eight packages weighing a total of 166 kilograms, Customs officers found out that the shoes and handbags featured wooden handles.

The illicit drugs were later handed over to the State Prosecutor of the Bonanjo High Court in Douala, for further investigations and legal proceedings. 

The seizure comes barely days after the Douala Customs officers intercepted 15kg of cocaine, bound for Sri Lanka, in South Asia, worth one billion FCFA. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No 3138 of Tuesday June 11, 2024

 This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No 3138 of Tuesday June 11, 2024This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No 3138 of Tuesday June 11, 2024